


Fate is a Great Excuse

by Sarah1281



Category: Kingdoms of Amalur
Genre: Game retelling, Humor, old fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-02
Updated: 2015-09-02
Packaged: 2018-04-18 18:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 102,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4715924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarah1281/pseuds/Sarah1281
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fayne doesn't really understand how this whole bound to fate thing works but that's probably because she has no memory of being bound to it herself. She understands why it's up to her to change things, really she does. But how could this world have made it as long as it has without her if literally everything everyone tries to do is fated to fail? It's just highly improbable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The blonde dokkalfar woman was cognizant of a bothersome buzzing noise before she even opened her eyes. Was that a bee? She hated bees. It couldn't just be one bee as it was pretty loud. Unless the buzzing was right by her ear. Was she going to get stung? She should move. Unless moving startled it and made it – them? – sting her. What was the rule about bees?

The weight was the next thing she noticed. Something was on top of her. It felt like a someone and she opened her eyes to find what appeared to be a corpse lying on her. Well when it looked like a corpse it usually was one so she quickly pushed it off only to discover that she was lying on a whole pile of misshapen bodies that, from a glance, appeared to be in pain. Were the bees here for them? Or were they maggots? Did maggots buzz? Did flies? Damned if she knew.

But what was important was getting off of them so she forced her way to the top of the pile. Standing on a mountain of corpses. This was not a good sign. She tried to think of how she got there and found she could not. Was she the sole survivor of a massacre or something? She certainly felt like it. She didn't seem to be injured so who knew how she was mistaken for dead. Maybe she was unconscious and no one checked all that much? It was a pretty massive pile of dead people.

She was breathing far harder than she should be for just moving a few feet away from the mound of bodies and she was coughing like she was trying to expel a lung. What was going on?

She appeared to be in a cave and alone except for all the corpses. It was a pretty giant cave. Maybe this was the work of a nefarious serial killer and she had to get out of here before he came back to finish the job. Yeah, no matter what was going on getting out of there seemed to be the best move so she took off.

Along the way, she happened upon a staff. Excellent. She definitely needed it more than whoever just left it lying around in a locked chest somewhere. She heard someone and would have started towards them but they sounded pretty ominous with 'No child of dust shall escape' and she didn't know if she was considered a child of dust or not but escape was pretty much what she wanted to do just then.

The call for help sounded much less evil so she went off that way. The guy in question must be some kind of ventriloquist as he sounded a lot closer than he actually was. She finally found a gnome surrounded by some very weird-looking people and fortunately they stopped harassing the gnome in order to attack her. Well, fortunately for the gnome. She didn't exactly appreciate all the attention but she managed to shoot some bolts of light at them and it seemed to hurt them. And then kill them.

Well maybe now she'd get some answers.

"Thank you so much for saving me!" the gnome said. "I don't know who you are or what you're doing here but…wait, never mind. Yes I do."

"Well that's more than I know," the dokkalfar said. "Care to fill me in?"

The gnome frowned. "I don't know. I don't think I should. I'm not nearly so important as to tell you the plot."

The dokkalfar crossed her arms."I just saved your life. The least you can do is tell me what's going on."

"Well what's going on should be obvious," the gnome said. "We're under attack by the Tuatha Deohn."

"Oh, obviously," the dokkalfar mocked. "Except, no, that's not obvious at all. What's a Tuatha Deohn?"

The gnome stared at her incredulously. "How do you not know what they are? Do you live in a bubble or something? Or do you have memory problems?"

The dokkalfar thought about it. "I…yes? I guess. So just tell me."

The gnome sighed. "I have neither the time nor inclination to get deep into the history of all of this so…fae. They die but then come back to life because they're just lucky that way. But it's not like a immediately rising from the dead so there's no point in killing them thing. It sometimes takes a few years, I think. And I don't know if they're born or fall from the sky or what since it's never occurred to me to ask before. There are two types of fae. The summer fae are your basic commune with nature and look down on mortals type of fae while the winter fae are your basic celebrate death and look down on mortal fae. About ten years ago the winter fae were taken over by a radical group called the Tuatha Deohn who want to kill everybody to bring back some sealed god that might not even exist or something."

The dokkalfar blinked. "That's…not very precise."

The gnome shrugged. "What are you going to do? The Tuatha are usually more in the mood to kill everybody than to explain why they're killing everybody."

"Huh. So since I appear to be suffering memory problems and you said you know why I'm here, could you maybe tell me that?" the dokkalfar asked.

"You died," the gnome said bluntly.

"I…what?" the dokkalfar asked, uncertain she'd heard him correctly. "Was that why I woke up on a pile of corpses? Who killed me? Was it you? Or the Tuatha?"

"Damned if I know," the gnome said. "Except it definitely wasn't me."

"Then how did I get here? And how did I come back to life? Am I a fae?"

"Oh, you're definitely not. They have blue or green or purple skin," the gnome explained. "Here at the Well of Souls, Professor Hugues magically recreates the bodies of dead people he's never seen and hopes that their soul will be in their bodies and they'll be alive again."

"…is there any point in asking how?"

"Magic. I just said that," the gnome replied. "Weren't you listening?"

"That's awfully convenient, isn't it?" the dokkalfar asked.

"Not really since it has never worked before. We have been able to get them to start breathing but they're all zombies and usually we just grow corpses," the gnome said.

"Why don't you use bodies that are already on hand?" she asked. "Surely if there is a war you can't be hurting for them. It just seems easier."

"Are you kidding? Desecrate the dead? We've all read Frankenstein. But while there's a good chance that the Tuatha won't show up again until we're done talking, I know that I'm not important enough to avoid being tragically impaled right in front of you while you watch uselessly instead of helping me so let's go and try to stay ahead of things, shall we?" the gnome asked rhetorically.

The two set off. Despite the hurry that the gnome claimed to be in, he stopped to show her off to literally every other gnome they came across. Despite the fact she seemed to be better at fighting than anyone else around, they wouldn't let her stay and help because it was really important that she not die again. Well, honestly she'd rather stay alive long enough to figure out what was going on, too. But the suicidal last stand all of the gnomes, including the one she was with, insisted on seemed a little unnecessary.

She found another gnome standing over a giant cauldron, completely serene.

"Um…hi," the dokkalfar said. "Are you not aware that there's a Tuatha invasion going on right now?"

"Oh, no, I'm aware," the gnome said. "That's why I'm trying to get this last bit of research tied up. My name is Hugues. What's yours?"

The dokkalfar hesitated. "I…don't know. I appear to be having some memory problems."

Hugues approached her and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Are you now? I wonder if that has anything to do with you being brought back to life."

"Okay, how does everybody know that you brought me back to life? Did you memorize all the corpses? I know there was a lot!" the dokkalfar exclaimed.

Hugues shook his head. "No, of course not, but you're not a gnome nor a Tuatha so what else would you be doing here?"

"That's…actually a really good point," she admitted.

"Oh, we had no idea you were alive or we never would have thrown you out with the rest of the corpses to be burned!" Hugues cried out. "And not just for moral reasons but because doing that would completely defeat the purpose of trying to bring someone back from the dead! Maybe I should have waited longer than thirty seconds after you were formed before deciding it didn't work and tossing you out…"

"Maybe," the dokkalfar agreed, quickly growing alarmed. "How do you know that I'm your first success? Maybe you brought back all sorts of people only to burn them alive."

Hugues shook his head. "That can't be it. I'm not dead."

"I don't see the correlation between these two unless you expect your god to smite you for burning people alive," the dokkalfar said.

"It's really weird that you don't have a name."

The dokkalfar narrowed her eyes. "I'm sorry if it's strange for you but I can't help that I don't have my memory."

"Oh no, I don't blame you for that at all! In fact you could just go on a killing spree and join the Tuatha and I would still like you for coming back from the dead for me," Hugues said. "Though please don't do that. It's just that I want to know what to think of you as. Frankenstein taught us all about the value of not just calling the person you brought back to life the creature or else things will end badly and everyone will think of the creature when they say your name. I wouldn't want you to be known as Hugues with everyone forgetting me."

"Do we really have time to name me?" the dokkalfar asked. "I did mention the invasion, right?"

"If you don't name yourself then, as your sort-of creator, it will be up to me to name you and I've always liked Huguesella for a girl," Hugues said pointedly.

The dokkalfar started coughing. "I just…give me a minute…"

It took fifteen but finally she said, "Fayne. I can live with Fayne."

"Well, Fayne, it's good to meet you," Hugues said smiling. "I wish I could have known you longer or that most of the time we were acquainted you weren't busy quietly trying to come up with a name that could beat out Huguesella but that's life for you."

"Wait, why are you acting like we're never going to see each other again?" Fayne asked. "Everyone wanted me to come up here so we could escape together."

"Oh, I have no intention of escaping. I'm going to suicidally charge them and hope I live long enough to get them to inexplicably chase after me and ignore you while you go find a friend of my name Agarth in Gorhart."

"You're saying these words but I don't know who that is or where that is and am I really just supposed to ask everybody until I find your Agarth guy? What if he's not where you say he is?" Fayne asked.

Hugues shrugged. "I don't know but that won't be my problem as I'm about to die."

"Yeah, that's another thing. Why would you want to do that? That's a really stupid plan. I have never heard of any stupider plans. Literally. And while that may not seem like it means a lot given my amnesia, I want you to know that that does not detract from the stupidness of this plan," Fayne informed him.

"I'm not saying that I like it either," Hugues said defensively. "But it's not like I can do anything else."

Fayne stared at him. "Uh…yes. Yes you can. You can do literally anything else and it wouldn't be that stupid."

Hugues sighed melodramatically. "You don't understand. I have to do this."

"You're right; I don't understand," Fayne agreed. "Care to explain?"

"Not really. I'd like to have a little mystery with my death," Hugues said.

"So really you have no good reason for doing something you agree is stupid," Fayne concluded. "You are really not impressing me here."

"I'm not here to impress you. All I need is for you to live on and be proof that my Well of Souls worked and I brought someone back from the dead," Hugues told her.

"How can I be proof of that?" Fayne asked.

"I…don't follow," Hugues admitted. "You were dead and I brought you back to life so you are proof that this worked. It seems pretty simple."

"But you say you don't know who I am. Unless I was really well-known, but not to you I guess, and my death was really public then how does me living prove anything to anyone? Anyone could go around claiming you brought them back to life but it doesn't prove anything. If you stuck around maybe you could prove it or lend the claim validity but I still don't understand any of this and to be honest I don't think your assistants do either," Fayne said.

A distraught look crossed Hugues' face. "That actually-"

The door flung open and the gnome from earlier came in. "You two still aren't gone yet? But what about our heroic sacrifice?"

"What did you come up here for if you thought we'd be long gone?" Hugues asked.

The gnome shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. I just didn't want to stand there and wait for the Tuatha to kill me, I guess. And hey! Now I can give you a two-second warning that they're right behind me!"

With that, he was pierced by an arrow and collapsed.

Hugues brushed himself off. "Well, I guess it's my turn. Remember, I brought you back to life so you owe me so find a way to prove my genius!"

"I'm not even going to do that," Fayne said. "Stop being stupid and come with me."

"No, I'm going to go do this," Hugues told her before charging at the Tuatha. They did all turn and look at him and the ceiling of the tower started collapsing for some reason cutting them off in case they decided to go after Fayne anyway.

"You know that this makes your drawing them off even more stupid, right?" Fayne called after him.

\----

When Fayne finally made it out, she was surprised to find just how cheery everything looked. She woke up on a pile of corpses, apparently came back to life, Tuatha had just killed a bunch of gnomes she didn't know but probably owed her life, and now it was a bright and shining day. While it might be unrealistic to expect that the weather would conform to her personal drama it would still be appreciated.

She saw some injured gnomes outside of the tower but they clearly came from the same place she did and if they were Agarth surely Hugues would have mentioned it so she ignored them.

She realized she didn't actually have any money and would probably need to get some and so tried to pick some interesting looking plants but she kept somehow failing which was rather odd. Maybe she needed to learn more about picking plant things?

She walked right up to the first non-gnome that she saw, a man drinking and playing cards by himself. "I don't suppose you'd like to be incredibly convenient and be named Agarth? And be acquainted with a gnome named Hugues?"

The man nodded. "I am indeed Agarth and friend to Fomorous Hugues."

"Well I never got a first name," Fayne said, "but that's probably right. I am so glad you just happened to be out here! I had no idea how I was going to find you on such little information."

"I'm a Fateweaver," Agarth said modestly. "It's my job to be convenient."

"I think I like you," Fayne decided.

Agarth chuckled. "I'm glad. Not many do."

Fayne eyed him strangely and stepped back a little. "Oh no? Any particular reason why?"

"Oh, no, not me personally," Agarth assured her. "Actually I've got a lot of friends. But I'm a Fateweaver and it's a terribly unpopular profession."

"Unpopular as in not many people want to do it or unpopular as in no one really likes them?" Fayne asked.

"It's the same thing, isn't it?" Agarth asked rhetorically. "If no one likes them then it's not going to be a popular position to have, is it?"

Fayne quickly rallied. "Not necessarily! Maybe it's such a difficult and strenuous job that it's in high demand and everybody loves them."

"Well I can confirm it is difficult and strenuous but no one likes Fateweavers. No one. Even I don't like us," Agarth said.

"Then…why did you go into Fateweaving? And why stay in Fateweaving?" Fayne asked.

Agarth shrugged. "I thought it was supposed to be some great honor at first. They always let you think that or else they'd never be able to recruit anyone."

"And you somehow failed to notice how much everyone hated Fateweavers while you were a part of the everyone hating them?" Fayne asked pointedly.

"…Yes? And once you become a Fateweaver you can't just quit. You know how to read Fate and you can't just unlearn this skill."

"You don't have to use it," Fayne told him.

Agarth fixed her with an unimpressed look. "I would like to see you have the impulse control to resist checking fate every five minutes, I really would."

"It sounds to me like you're describing a Fate addiction," Fayne said. "Have you tried getting help?"

"From who? Everyone hates Fateweavers and if we could get help and stop being one then do you really think there would be any Fateweavers left?" Agarth challenged.

"So you're not even going to try to do something else with your life? Maybe obsess over Fate on the side if you truly can't help it?"

Agarth shook his head. "What's the point? I'm probably fated to be a Fateweaver forever anyway."

Fayne just stared at him. " 'Probably fated'? What in the…First Hugues and his need to go get himself killed and now you! Is no one capable of accepting personal responsibility or what?"

"I don't believe in personal responsibility," Agarth replied.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Shocking."

"What's the point when you have no choice in the matter? Forcing you to be responsible for things that aren't your fault seems terribly unfair."

"I don't disagree but how is your own actions not your own fault?" Fayne challenged. "I mean, I chose to walk past all the injured who escaped the tower to come over here but that was all on me. I'm not blaming anyone else for my apathy and being kind of a terrible person in this scenario."

"I feel like maybe you haven't heard of Fate," Agarth said delicately.

"Well I don't know about that but I do know that you never bothered to explain to me what Fateweaving was," Fayne said.

"Fateweavers are people who have been trained to see the tapestry of Fate. We see what is going to happen and people pay us money for this. Unfortunately, the news isn't always good so everyone hates us. With the way the world has been heading, it's usually bad. Come to think of it, it's kind of strange just how often we have to give bad news. You would think that somebody somewhere could have a nice happy future. Maybe if we just stuck to some positive things and not the inevitable death they'd be a bit happier with us? Something to consider," Agarth mused.

"Doesn't that create kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy kind of situation?" Fayne asked. "If someone is thinking about whether to accept a marriage proposal, for instance, and they find out that they marry somebody different and turn down the proposal because of that. If they hadn't asked then maybe they would have accepted."

Agarth shook his head. "No, trust me, it doesn't work like that. People have tried. I've had a man who was so horrified at the thought that he might kill his father and marry his mother that he left home, accidentally killed his father on the road, then won the hand of a widowed queen and four kids later found out he was adopted."

Fayne narrowed her eyes. "I know I've heard that story before."

Agarth shrugged. "So what if you did? The more famous the better. You can't fight Fate."

"What if he just never got married or only married someone who wasn't old enough to have given birth to him?" Fayne challenged.

"There are spells for things like that," Agarth said. "Potions. You can never really be sure."

"It still sounds a little bit unlikely," Fayne said.

"Unlikely or not it's true. Which should actually make it quite likely," Agarth said. "How adorable, not believing in Fate. I almost want to tell you what's going to happen to you but you do look like you know how to use that staff."

Fayne wrinkled her nose. "No thanks."

"It may save me a flight for my life later," Agarth said. "But you said you were looking for me? You must have come from the Well of Souls. Let me guess, Hugues wanted you to tell me that he finally succeeded in bringing somebody back to life and now he's dead."

Fayne's eyes widened. "How did you know that? Wait…was he planning his whole stupid suicide thing for longer than I thought?"

"Not exactly," Agarth said. "He just came to me and asked me if he would ever succeed in bringing someone back from the dead. I had good news for once, sort of, and told him that he would but on that day he would be killed. He took it pretty well after miraculously surviving alcohol poisoning. Called it a new lease on life and went on to minor fame as a daredevil before getting back to work. Even I don't know how he didn't die with some of those other than it being Fate's will."

"So you convinced him that just because he succeeded he was going to die? That's why he insisted on dying so pointlessly!" Fayne exclaimed angrily.

"He probably just wanted to face his inevitable death bravely and not cowering," Agarth suggested. "And who can blame him?"

"Why didn't he just never try to bring someone back if that was what was going to happen?"

"We all die sometime," Agarth said reasonably. "For all he knew he'd be dying of old age when he succeeded. And he thought this was worth dying for. And who knows? If he succeeded maybe he could one day be brought back."

"What is even the point of Fateweavers?" Fayne demanded.

"I just explained it," Agarth said, offended. "And you just argued extensively with me about it. Do you have no short-term memory?"

"No, I actually think my short-term memory is okay," Fayne said. "But ask me again in an hour. I just don't see the point in knowing your fate if you can't change it, especially if you're going to fail. What if you told Hugues that he was never going to succeed. Would he still have tried? According to you he would have had to."

"We were consulted by great leaders and kings," Agarth said wistfully. "Well…I wasn't but earlier in our order's history we were. They would ask things like 'Will this invasion I'm planning succeed' or 'will the crops be plentiful this year' and plan accordingly."

"How?" Fayne asked. "If the invasion was fated to fail then that means it was fated to happen, wasn't it?"

"I think you're just putting too much thought into this," Agarth accused.

"And I think that if you all want to run around pretending that you aren't responsible for your own life you could at least try a bit harder with the rationale!" Fayne countered.

"Not literally everything is set in stone. It's not set in stone that you must stand here and argue with me about the existence of Fate, for example. How you die will be written in stone, perhaps if you get married or have children or any other big accomplishments. The details do not matter. A king could hear that he would conquer an area or not conquer it and if he were fated not to conquer it he might as well save everyone the trouble and not try in the first place," Agarth explained.

Fayne perked up at that. "You say that you can see what will happen to people? Can you see the past? Because I would actually really like to know how I died."

Agarth's eyes lit up. "I'm sorry, I can only see the future. But how you died? So you're the one! I guess that makes sense since you're not a gnome and came from the tower but I didn't want to assume."

"Everyone there did."

"I was here waiting to meet with you. Since I've discovered who you are, I should probably warn you that Fate says we will be attacked by Tuatha," Agarth said.

Fayne glanced behind her. "You're sure you're not just saying that because you can see them approaching?"

Agarth didn't answer but he did put quite a bit of force into his first blow against the attackers.

After a few hits, Fayne began to see some strange purple lines emanating from the Tuatha. She focused on those, a giant ethereal sword appeared, and she used that to kill it. It made her feel a little lightheaded but also sort of humming with energy. Well that was abnormal. But what hadn't been ever since the amnesia? And who was to say things were any less weird before to land her in such a situation sans memory?

"What was that?" Agarth cried out, apparently not taking the weirdness in stride like she was. So she was getting too weird for Mr. 'nothing I do has anything to do with me.'

"I don't know. I think I'll probably do it again the next time I see that weird purple thing, though," Fayne said.

"What are you?" Agarth demanded.

"I'm a dokkalfar. I know it's hard to tell dokkalfar from ljosalfar sometimes but I don't see why that's relevant here," Fayne said.

"That wasn't what I meant! You can't just do that! I'm used to seeing the threads of Fate but not like that and not manipulated! Fate…it can't be changed. You can't change it. You just did. You changed the way the world was supposed to work!" He looked quite distraught though that all sounded pretty good to her.

"How was that? Were we fated to be killed by the Tuatha?"

"Well, no," Hugues conceded. "But you weren't supposed to kill them like that!"

Fayne threw her hands up in the air. "And what happened to 'the details don't matter'? If I was fated to kill them and I killed them then it's fine."

But Agarth was shaking his head. "This is all wrong. Tell you what, I'm going to do a Fate reading for you. Having learned my lesson the last time I was nearly executed by a group of angry soon-to-be Tuatha victims, I won't tell you how you'll die again."

"I would really rather you didn't," Fayne said. "For all I know you're right about people having no free will and my path is set so the least you can do is allow me my illusions and not tell me what life has got in store for me."

"Sorry, no can do," Agarth apologized, not sounding sorry at all. "I'm curious and you can't stop me."

"I could always hit you with my staff."

"Isn't that a little extreme?" Agarth asked, laying the cards out. "I'm just looking at cards."

Fayne glared at him and crossed her arms.

"Well that's odd," Agarth said, shuffling the cards and laying them out again. "I don't see anything for you."

"How do you not see anything for me?" Fayne asked reasonably. "You are looking at cards. And how precise can you possibly be with things like 'on the day you succeed in bringing someone back from the dead you'll die' if you're going off of fortune telling cards?"

"It would take years of training to explain it to you," Agarth said disdainfully.

"I'm just saying this all sounds incredibly sketchy."

"I'm not saying I believe that this is true but…what if you can control your own life?" Agarth said, lowering his voice to a whisper.

"You mean like a normal person?" Fayne asked.

"There is literally nothing normal about this," Agarth said. "Unless it turns out you're an alcohol-induced hallucination in which case this is pretty typical. But you did kill those Tuatha. Unless they were hallucinations, too!"

"The fact that you find this to be a plausible explanation worries me," Fayne said.

"The fact that you appear to be immune from Fate worries me," Agarth said. "You can't just be some sort of a Fateless One. Has this sort of thing ever happened to you before?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Fayne admitted. "I don't remember anything before coming back to life. In fact, I have to take it on faith that I was even dead."

Agarth's eyebrows shot up. "And so the plot thickens! That does remind me…you know who I am but I never got around to asking who you are. Quite negligent of me. You say you don't remember who you are…do you at least have something you want me to call you? Because if not then I have to say I think Agarthiza is a lovely name."

Fayne groaned."You don't say. But don't worry, Hugues was similarly concerned by my lack of a name – I'm just some random dokkalfar after all – and so I came up with one. Until we find out my real name, or assuming my real name is stupid, you can call me Fayne."

"Fayne," Agarth repeated thoughtfully, stroking his beard. "I get it. Like Fateless One. The first part of the first word and the last part of the last word."

"That…did not occur to me," Fayne said, perturbed. "I guess kind of."

"It must be Fate," Agarth declared grandly before he frowned. "Except maybe not if it's you. This is just too weird. Maybe I broke something. Or I could blame you."

"How kind."

"Let's just be sure. I know this guy, Arden. He's kind of a terrible person but he's the best damn Fateweaver I know. Go see him and see if he can see anything. If he can then mystery solved and I'll try and lay off the liquor. If not then there's nothing wrong with me so either way win-win," Agarth said.

"Why?"

Agarth blinked. "Why what?"

"Why should I go see this guy?" Fayne asked.

"Why…because you have no Fate, of course! Or no Fate that I can see! This is rather a big deal!"

Fayne shrugged. "I don't think that it is. I don't really care. I don't like the thought of Fate anyway and I really have more pressing concerns such as finding out who I am."

"Do you have any other leads or really any other concrete plans?" Agarth asked knowingly.

Fayne opened her mouth and then deflated. "No…"

"Then you might as well go get this sorted. Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong and it is your Fate to find out who you are. This could help," Agarth said enticingly.

Fayne sighed. "Fine, whatever. I'll see if I can make my way over there. Um, where is 'there' exactly?"

"Oh, just Arden's home. It's to the east," Agarth said helpfully.

"So are a lot of things I would imagine," Fayne said dryly. "You can't be more specific than that?"

"No, sorry, can't. I have to go help the injured. Fate said so," Agarth said, strolling off.

"You're not all that invested in solving this puzzle, are you?" Fayne called after him. She was not going to demean herself by chasing after him.

Agarth glanced back over his shoulder. "Don't worry; he's a Fateweaver. I'm sure something incredibly convenient will happen and you'll find him."


	2. Chapter 2

Fayne walked into town to see a crowd forming around something.

"Excuse me," she said, "where am I?"

"Gorhart," the guard said. "Now move along."

"Move along from standing right here or do you want me to leave town or find a building to go in or…?"

"I mean someone attacked this poor fae and now every idiot in town is coming out to gawk," the guard replied, shaking her head in annoyance. "It's really not helping anything. I'm telling everyone to go away but no one is listening. This doesn't involve you and we don't need your help."

"Oh, well I'm absolutely willing to listen," Fayne said cheerfully. "I really don't want to get dragged into your problems." She turned to go.

"Wait," an official-looking man who had been kneeling by the body said, standing up. "My name is Herc Adwold and I'm the warden here. As such it's kind of my problem when things like this happen."

Fayne frowned. "I…don't know why you needed to stop me before I left and make me aware of that but it's good to know and I'll definitely remember. Bye now."

"I wasn't finished," Herc said, crossing his arms. "Don't make me accuse you of being a fae-hater. I am fully prepared to judge you for that."

"I don't really care."

"I will follow you around while judging you until you do care," Herc threatened.

"As the warden don't you have more pressing responsibilities?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

"As the warden that distinction is entirely up to me," Herc said.

Fayne sighed. "Fine. Please go on."

"Now this poor creature has clearly been beaten near to death! Just look at her!" Herc cried out, gesturing dramatically towards her. "I'm not sure we should just leave her out in the road like that but I don't know about moving her either so we'll just leave her here until I figure it out."

Fayne spared a glance at the fae at her feet. "Are you sure she's been that severely beaten? I would imagine someone who has been would maybe stay still. She's rolling every which way like she's just had a bad stomach ache. And I don't see any bruising or blood."

"She's a fae; they aren't like us."

"But then what makes you think she's been beaten to near-death? Did you witness it and do nothing?" Fayne asked.

Herc coughed uncomfortably. "I suspect, judging from her wounds, that she was attacked with daggers. But who can really say? Certainly not all those people who just stood around watching it. And I was definitely not one of those people."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Whatever. So is that it or…?"

"Actually, it's not. I think she's going to die. I don't know how to treat a fae injury. They're so much more resilient than humans and they come back from the dead and everything but we really don't want her to die because then we might get in trouble over this while nobody is likely to care if she lives. A human might die from this!"

He seemed to be looking expectantly at her so Fayne reluctantly said, "I have a health potion here if you'd like it."

"No, no, that's no good. Who knows if it would even work?" Herc asked.

"You would. If you tried it. It probably wouldn't make the situation worse," Fayne suggested pointedly.

Herc shook his head. "No, that won't do at all. We want to keep this quiet so can you go ask the fae that lives on the hill and doesn't think we know about her how to fix this?"

"How do you know she doesn't know you know about her?" Fayne asked.

"Sometimes she walks through town and acts like she thinks we literally can't see her. I suspect she might be a bit touched in the head. Or I guess all fae could be like that; I'm no expert. But she's a fae so she should know how to cure fae."

"Like how any mortal would know how to cure a mortal just by virtue of being mortal," Fayne said sarcastically.

Herc nodded. "Exactly like that."

"Why don't you go?" Fayne demanded.

"I'm kind of a coward in case that's not been made perfectly clear," Herc confessed.

Fayne paused. "Since you're taking responsibility for your own cowardice and not blaming it on Fate I think I'll actually help you. Plus this doesn't sound like it's too difficult."

Herc perked up. "Blaming Fate? Is that something we can do?"

Fayne glared at him. "No."

She headed toward the gate leading out of town and passed by a woman ranting about how sexist the mission in town was.

"I bet they wouldn't have locked their doors two minutes before the attack if it was a male fae!" she accused. "And how did they even know the attack was coming? And what's this nonsense about Mitharu only loving men? What's the point of a god that only likes one gender? There's nothing in the books that say that but they still insist that women can't join their order."

Against her better judgment, Fayne slowed down. "Why would you even want to be a part of an order if they think like that?"

"It's not about wanting to be surrounded by people who don't want me around, of course I don't want that," she said. "I'm Zelda, by the way. I do want to change their minds or at least change the practice of the orders if a stubborn few refuse to get with it. But what I want most of all is to be able to, as a devout follower of Mitharu, join their ranks. But nobody cares. Nobody even likes the mission here anyway. I really need to get a copy of their scripture so that I can prove to them there's no basis for denying me."

Fayne winced. It did seem like a really good cause but on the other hand this was how side quests happened. "Point me in the direction of that scripture and I'll see what I can do."

Zelda beamed and told her though Fayne decided to put that off until that night. She didn't know if she'd ever stolen before but it seemed like a more nocturnal activity to her.

She went over to the gate and the man standing beside it seemed to think she wanted to talk to him.

"Hello, I am Father Dynwel," Father Dynwel introduced. "Welcome to St. Odwig's Perpetual Mission."

"Isn't this the gate out of town?" Fayne asked.

"I…well, yes."

"What is St. Odwig's perpetual mission?"

Dynwel looked a little uncomfortable. "Trying to convert the fae to the worship of Mitharu."

"Ah. That would explain why it's perpetual. Have you had a single convert?" Fayne asked.

"No. But it's not so bad! If we had had a convert then it wouldn't have been so impressive when we convert them all!" Dynwel exclaimed.

"That's certainly optimistic," Fayne said diplomatically.

"I'd love to welcome you in but we're not letting anyone in right now unless they solve a problem for us," Dynwel said.

"And the fact that I'm a woman just makes you less likely to invite me in, doesn't it?" Fayne said pointedly.

"It doesn't hel-I mean, I have nothing against women. I love women. Why my own mother was a woman!" Dynwel assured her. "But the teachings of Mitharu say nothing about women as members of our order and that clearly means that Mitharu would be against them."

"Does it say anything about letting men in?"

Dynwel shook his head. "No but if we're already keeping women out then men must be allowed to join otherwise there would be no members. Think!"

"You disgust me," Fayne informed him.

"That may be so but you showed up and I need help so I'm calling Fate and there's nothing you can do about it," Dynwel told her. "Brother Egan ran away to go be a fae or something else stupid a few days ago. I'm worried he'll get himself killed and we have sort of a perception problem that hurts recruitment. Plus our mission is often deemed 'quixotic' by the people we talk to and I don't know what that means but it never leads to them signing up. Will you go find him and drag him back here regardless of what he wants for me?"

Fayne gaped wordlessly at him for a moment. "If I spot someone who looks like they might be him I'll tell him you want him to come home."

"That's all I ask," Dynwel said magnanimously.

Then he finally got out of her way and so was able to leave in peace. Or sort of in peace. She was harassed every five feet by wolves, bears, and sprites out to kill her but at least they weren't asking anything of her. Except that one guy who claimed he was a wolf and wanted her help turning back into a wolf. She helped him because she was honestly curious to see if that was true or not.

She eventually found a blonde man just standing around by himself and thought she might be onto something.

"Brother Egan?" she ventured.

The man shook his head. "It's just Egan now. Being a part of the mission was really boring and so I left. Wait, no that's not right. It's actually Camaran the Eternal. I know you're heavily armed and I'm, well, not but I met some fae so I think I'll be safe to call you a mortal vagabond. And I'm going to assume you have no home because why else would you be here? You do have some nice armor, though."

"Apparently it used to belong to Shepard," Fayne said modestly. "I found it in a chest. Someone mysterious left it there for me but I don't care enough to investigate."

"Who's Shepard?"

"I don't now but she sounds amazing," Fayne said. "The leader of your little mission thinks you're out here getting killed or something trying to be a fae and I really don't care because you're an ass so I'm just going to leave you to it."

"You can't just do that!" Egan objected. "I'm probably going to die out here."

"I'll…escort you back to Gorhart if you want," Fayne offered.

"Nope, can't do it. My new fae friends Finna and Arbos have promised me that they'd share their fae magic with me if I go get the Selkie Veil from some cave. I haven't done it yet because that would be suicide but with you I'm sure I stand a slightly better chance," Egan said.

"I was going to go but now I have some questions. Why would these fae want to give you magic? If they were even capable of doing that which I'm not convinced that they are," Fayne said.

"Maybe they are just very giving individuals or recognize my inherent magic-deserving qualities," Egan said, completely uncurious.

"And if they're so powerful why would they need you to go do this for them instead of doing it themselves?" Fayne asked.

Egan opened his mouth.

"And if you say maybe you're fated to do this and they're not then I'm going to hit you," she threatened.

Egan shrugged. "Then I've got nothing. Except maybe they're testing me to see how badly I want this."

"I'm going to need to go yell at these people so I'm going to need to keep you alive long enough to find them and do this," Fayne realized. "Let's go."

"Come with me if you want but even though you'll be saving my life and helping me succeed, don't expect any sort of reward or even basic gratitude from me," Egan warned.

"At least you're upfront about being an asshole," Fayne muttered.

"Okay, bye then." With that, he ran off.

"Bye then?" Fayne repeated. "Egan, you idiot! We're supposed to go together!"

\----

Egan might have been willing to do his share of the fighting but he also hung back and let her try to get the Selkie Veil. Which she did after being electrocuted by this strange glowing circular thing that rose from the ground. Twice.

And it appeared his habit of saying things and then trying to run away for no apparent reason wasn't going away.

But finally he led her to Finna and Arbos' camp. Finna came out to greet him. She was an alfar.

"Oh, crap, someone who isn't Egan," Finna said. "This could be a problem."

Fayne gave Egan a deeply unimpressed look. "Seriously?"

"What?" Egan asked blankly.

"This isn't a fae. I couldn't tell you if she's a dokkalfar or a ljosalfar because, let's be honest, we're basically the same thing-"

"Careful," Finna cautioned. "You could get thrown out for that kind of heresy! We've got important philosophical differences, we have."

"And that somehow makes us different species because…?" Fayne asked. When no answer was forthcoming, she went on, "But I know that she is definitely not a fae. How did you not know that?"

Egan's jaw dropped. "Really? You aren't a fae?"

"You know," Finna said conversationally, "I really do think that I could convince this idiot that I was even now. But that might just be too sad for words. No, you fool, I'm not."

"How could you possibly not know that?" Fayne demanded. "Haven't you seen alfar before? Surely you're not that insulated. Why didn't you think I was a fae?"

"Well you didn't claim you were a fae," Egan said matter-of-factly. "Besides, it's not like I've ever seen a fae before."

"I guess you were probably gone before that one woman was attacked," Fayne conceded. "But what about that one fae that lives on the hill that everyone knows about?"

"I kind of forgot about her," Egan admitted.

"Oh, honestly, what's next? You claim it's perfectly reasonable that you thought Finna here was a fae because fae have magic and so she used magic to appear like a non-fae?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

Egan brightened. "Ah, yes, that's exactly it! Brilliant!"

Fayne groaned. "Now I've given him ideas. I hate it when I give the people I'm arguing with ideas."

"I really don't care about any of this," Finna informed them. "Just give me the Selkie Veil which is rightfully mine or I'm going to kill you."

"In what way, exactly, is it rightfully yours?" Fayne challenged.

"It's rightfully mine in the way that I want it so therefore should get to have it," Finna said.

"You can certainly try to kill us. You'll probably succeed in killing Egan. But since I only came along with all of this to try and save his life, I wouldn't recommend it. Since you couldn't get this yourself and had to rely on others to do it for you, do you really want to kill the person capable of fetching this when you couldn't?" Fayne asked, crossing her arms.

Finna looked pained. "I want to say no, but on the other hand my brother will never accept 'I didn't want to die' as an excuse. Could you maybe come up with something else?"

"Are you kidding me right now?"

Finna shrugged. "I only wish I was. But you really have no idea how annoying he can be when he thinks I screwed up."

"Well then the, um, veil is cursed or something," Fayne said lamely.

"I'll take it," FInna decided. "Goodbye then. If I ever see you again, I'll have to try to kill you so please – for my sake – let's not let that happen."

"Well now I feel stupid," Egan admitted. "But in my defense, before I came to Gorhart I never knew anyone outside of my immediate family and we're not fae."

"That's not much of a defense. How do you not know anyone outside of your immediate family?" Fayne asked. "Were you just not allowed to leave the house or something?"

Egan coughed, embarrassed. "I was not. They thought I might fall down in a ditch somewhere and die."

"Then how did they ever allow you to leave and come here?" Fayne asked.

"They didn't, exactly," Egan admitted. "I went out for a walk one day and couldn't find my way back so I decided 'fuck it, I'm going to see the big city.' And so I did."

Fayne laughed. "Gorhart, are you kidding me?"

"It's bigger than my house," Egan said defensively.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "I'll escort you back so you actually make it back there. Don't go running off again."

"Oh, I definitely won't. I learned my lesson about trying to assert the slightest bit of independence," Egan assured her.

"Normally I'm not sure I'd agree with that but in this case…good. Just…good."

Fayne escorted him back and took the time to snatch the book Zelda wanted for her. Apparently it was really, really simple to change Dynwel's mind as when Fayne got back from getting her armor repaired Zelda was already a full-fledged member.

She set back out, hoping to find the fae this time. It seemed almost anticlimactic when she finally found the fae sitting serenely on top of a hill just where Herc said she'd be. It appeared not being very good at directions was something else she was learning about herself. Since her list was quite short thanks to the amnesia, it wasn't such a bad thing.

"May your hollow gods keep you, mortal," the fae said. "I'm called Aery."

"May your hollow gods keep you," Fayne repeated. "I'm a little confused here. That sort of sounds like a polite greeting and was probably what you were going for but you also called my gods hollow. I don't think I even have any gods since…well, I don't think I do. But that's really quite rude."

"I'm trying to sensitive to your mortal culture," Aery explained. "Is it my fault you worship hollow gods?"

"No but you don't have to call them hollow regardless of whether or not they are!"

"Is that so? Hm, mortals do take offense at the strangest things," Aery said. "Very well, I will cease to refer to your hollow gods as hollow gods."

"Thank you," Fayne said dryly.

"I've been spending all of my time staring at the villagers and so know who all of them are and you are not one of them. Did you seek me out to see if I, being a fae, just happen to know how to easily defeat the Tuatha and for some reason did not see fit to share this news even though my people are fighting them as well?" Aery asked. "Because that's kind of offensive."

"I can see why that would be," Fayne agreed. "Do you get that a lot?"

Aery rolled her eyes. "Like you wouldn't believe."

"I'm not here about that and I trust that, should you mysteriously stumble upon that kind of secret, you'll do the right thing," Fayne said. "I'm here because of that attacked fae."

"Oh, I saw the whole thing," Aery said, unconcerned.

"You too? Seriously?" Fayne asked, annoyed. "Is anybody capable of doing anything around here?"

"Hey, it's not just a Gorhart thing," Aery said, affronted. "I can tell you her name is Iluvia but that's pretty much it. I don't know who did it despite witnessing the entire thing because all mortals look the same to me."

"That's offensive," Fayne said. "And how can you say that when you said that you recognize that my face is not the face of someone living here?"

"I…that's a good point," Aery admitted. "You're closer than they were when they were attacking her?"

"Is that a question?"

"I don't see what you want me to do," Aery said loudly. "If she's fated to return to the Great Cycle then she's fated to return to the Great Cycle."

"And if she's fated to get help because you decide not to be useless and actually tell me how to help her?" Fayne asked pointedly.

"That did not occur to me," Aery said, surprised. "I have no way of knowing which is the case since I don't want to pay for a Fateweaver. Well if she is fated to live she is fated to live so I might as well tell you what to do and we'll see what happens."

"I'm all ears."

"Give her a really strong healing potion," Aery told her.

Fayne was sure she didn't hear that correctly. "I'm sorry, did you just tell me to use a health potion? Because I tried that earlier and Herc wouldn't let me because he didn't know what it would do."

"Well I don't know what it would do, either, but I can't imagine it would make things worse," Aery said reasonably. "We don't have access to any fae healers. I'm rather curious to see if it would work. Just make sure it is stronger than you would need for a human in the same situation since human bodies are so frail."

"Now that just doesn't make any sense at all. If human bodies are frail and fae bodies are stronger, why do we need a stronger potion for fae?"

"Because…it takes more to put a fae in that condition so it will take more for them to heal," Aery offered.

"This was such a waste of time," Fayne complained before heading back down to heal Iluvia. Herc had finally moved her to the inn, it seemed. "Hey, I'm back. It turns out that we should just give her a healing potion. I'd give her like three or something because I can't be bothered to go find a stronger one. Her name is Iluvia by the way. And the fae on the hill is Aery. Just in case anybody cares. Which I kind of doubt."

"Just in time!" Herc greeted, taking the potions and giving them to Iluvia. "If you were any later it would have been too late."

"Stop pretending you know anything about fae anatomy," Fayne said, rolling her eyes.

"Someone has got to go to the fae and inform them that Iluvia was injured, because they probably don't know, and that it was people here but it's still not our fault. One more little misunderstanding like this and we won't just be strangers to the fae; we'll be enemies."

"How did you even get put in charge of anything?" Fayne wondered. "Look, if they don't know do we really have to tell them? Is it some sort of fae thing that if one of them gets injured someone must report it?"

"I don't know that it is but then I don't know that it isn't," Herc said.

"That is a very unproductive attitude to have when it comes to fae customs," Fayne said seriously. "And honestly I think there's going to be a bit of a step between not knowing who we are and declaring us mortal enemies."

"I wish I could be so sure. Just in case not reporting this leads to them coming here to kill us all, can you please show how forthright and honest we are by telling them what happened? And hopefully blaming bears?" Herc asked.

"I don't know…"

"She's a member of the House of Ballads. They're legendary fae heroes who are the most devoted and intense LARP-ers you will ever meet. They're even willing to die if need be!" Herc exclaimed.

"Larper?"

"LARP-er. Live action role player. They take a legendary role and just enact it from now until eternity. Or they retire and someone else does it. Maybe being willing to die for it would be more impressive for people who don't come back to life but it's still pretty damn impressive," Herc said. "I wanted to join when I was younger."

"Now I kind of want to see it…" Fayne admitted. "I doubt they'd let me join since I'm not a fae but what a thing to see!"

"If they found out that one of their own was killed by a mortal they would come and slaughter us all mercilessly. And then if they ever have to recreate this tale could regularly go around killing people. We don't need another Tuahta," Herc told her.

"But…she's not dying. She's going to be fine."

"I don't believe you," Herc said stubbornly.

Iluvia stirred and sat up. "What happened?"

Fayne looked pointedly at him.

"What?" Herc asked blankly.

"How do you know this wasn't part of some reenactment anyway?" Fayne wondered.

"Because it's never happened before," Herc said. "I'm sure you're wondering how I know all of this about her since I didn't even know her name but that's a question I don't really feel like answering."

"Of course you don't."

"Or I guess we could go ask the Warsworn to help us but then we'd have to pay them and I don't want to do that. You could always do it if you wanted," Herc hinted.

"Why is any of this even my problem?" Fayne demanded. "I don't live here and I'm not staying."

"You're in just as deep as we are," Herc said grimly.

"I'm really not."

"It's a perfect excuse to go meet the House of Ballads."

"I…fine. I'll go. But I might not even bother telling them about Iluvia so there," Fayne told him.

"I'm sure you'll do the right thing," Herc said, completely unconcerned.

He was probably right which just annoyed her and she stormed off.

"Hey, you," a heavily-armored guy leaning up against the wall of the inn said.

Fayne stopped. "Please don't tell me you want me to do something or you want me to fight you. I'm really not in the mood."

The man laughed. "Oh, not at all. I'm just in charge of recruiting for the Warsworn."

"The what?"

"We're a bunch of paid soldiers, basically, but we get a lot of respect and a great reputation and some cool titles," the man explained. "My name is Ost Odura. Recruitment is a bit difficult since, despite our desperate need for manpower, we are contemptuous of every new recruit and act like you're going to just get yourself and everyone else killed no matter how provably competent you are so my method of recruitment is basically to stand here and call out to people who I can tell are armed and see if they're interested."

"You're really selling it," Fayne deadpanned.

Odura shrugged. "I just get paid to stand here not by how many successful recruits I get. They're lucky I bother giving the spiel at all. If you did manage to become a Warsworn people would think you were awesome."

"Being thought of as awesome is always good," Fayne said consideringly.

"It's really simple. The Red Legion has two brothers named Osgar and Mendgar Krast and I need you to kill them and bring me their daggers," Odura said. "Then I'll write you a letter of recommendation and you can take it to Shieldring Keep and they'll at least give you a shot."

"How am I supposed to know who these two are and how would you know if the daggers are really theirs or not?" Fayne asked. "Do they engrave their name on the daggers or something?"

To her surprise, Odura nodded. "They do, actually. It's kind of odd but apparently it's a big Red Legion thing."

"Ah, well, I'll definitely think about it," Fayne told him.

She was a bit perturbed when she went to go stock up on potions and the first thing the gnome proprietor asked was whether she felt deathly ill.

"Ah, no, I don't think so. Why? Is there some kind of plague going around here? Do I look ill? Are you just trying to sell me a potion?" Fayne asked suspiciously.

"No, you look fine. Well, scratch that, actually you look like you're about to just keel over. But I've been seeing symptoms everywhere so I may not be the best judge and you're probably fine. It's flu season anyway which just makes this all the more nerve-wracking. We could all be killed. I just don't think the situation could be worse," the gnome said. "Ah, but I did not introduce myself! My name is Nanne Hanri."

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Fayne," Fayne said automatically. "This all sounds very bad but I think a worse situation would be if everyone really was dying or dead. Why do you think everyone could die?"

"Why ask questions when you could not hope to understand the answer? It's clear your prowess is not with wit but with weapons," Nanne said rudely.

Fayne drew herself up, offended. "Fine, be that way. See if I care."

"Wait!" Nanne called after her. "Don't you care that everybody here is going to die?"

Fayne hesitated. "I feel like I would be a bad person if I said not really since I just got here and it's not my problem and you were a total bitch to me completely unprovoked."

"I don't see how it's at all bitchy to tell you that you're too stupid to understand things," Nanne said blankly.

Fayne forced a smile. "Well trust me, it is. Maybe not to a great genius like you undoubtedly are but us mere mortals don't take kindly to being called stupid and you don't even know anything about me. Just because I may be good at killing things, which is also an unfair assumption, doesn't mean that I can't also be an intellectual!"

"I have never heard of someone who is smart being good at killing things," Nanne said. "It just doesn't happen."

"Gnome society must be weird," Fayne deduced. "But either way, you don't live surrounded by gnomes so I'm sure that can't be true."

"You've met Herc," Nanne said pointedly.

"…Herc isn't everyone," Fayne said.

"So sorry if I offended you or whatever. The point is that I created a chemical weapon to kill the Tuatha but it went missing and so did my apprentice Karth. Whoops. He left a note saying something about running off to join the Red Legion so I think it's safe to say they've got their hands in this. Can you go get it back for me?"

"And you can't do it because…?" Fayne prompted.

"For someone who claims they aren't stupid, you apparently didn't listen when I told you I was smart and so couldn't fight," Nanne sniffed.

"No, I was listening but I just think it's stupid," Fayne said. "But I guess I don't want everybody to die. It would serve you right if they did, though." She went outside and raised her voice. "Okay, everybody, I'm going to go kill the Red Legion. Does anybody else have a vested interest in me doing this and maybe something else they'd want done? Just Red Legion connected, mind you, I don't have time to run everyone's errands."

"Could have fooled me," Dynwel spoke up. "Don't you agree, Sister Zelda?"

Zelda looked innocent. "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, Brother Dynwel?"

"Oh, did you guys get over your sexism then?" Fayne asked, interested.

"I was never sexist," Zelda claimed.

"She proved it wasn't in the book. And though I already knew that, somehow this made a difference and once we changed the rules there's no point holding on to the old beliefs anymore. It's just not logical," Dynwel explained.

"Well…okay, then. Good for you," Fayne said.

A man stepped forward. "You're sure this is okay? I don't want to be a bother."

"People are already being a bother asking me to go completely wipe out the Red Legion so I'm sure one more task won't hurt," Fayne said indifferently.

Nanne stuck her head out her door. "That's not precisely what-"

"Oh, I'm sorry, what did you want me to do again?" Fayne interrupted.

"Never mind," Nanne said, going back inside.

"Well since you're offering…My name is Brother Delf. I know this might be hard to believe but I used to be kind of a terrible person. In fact, I was even with the Red Legion! But I couldn't live like that anymore and found Mitharu so I became a brother here," Delf said.

Fayne looked horrified. "Don't say that!"

"Don't say what?" Delf asked. "And why?"

"Don't you dare make me worry that any Red Legion people I kill could one day have an epiphany about their evil ways and repent or could be working up the courage to leave," Fayne warned. "Don't you dare. I'm already going to claim self-defense because I'm sure they'll attack me even if I'm going with the intent of killing them all. Don't make this morally gray!"

"I'm…sorry?" Delf said, confused. "I'm sure they're all very bad people."

Fayne crossed her arms. "Good."

"The Red Legion wouldn't have as many members as they do if people could just walk away whenever they feel like it," Delf said seriously. "You can't leave or they'll hunt you down. Three of us wanted to leave, however, so we faked our deaths and ran off. We always suspected that we might be found, though, and now we have."

Fayne held up a hand. "Sorry, hate to interrupt you, but if you faked your death then why did you suspect someone might track you down? Why would they track down a corpse?"

"I, uh, well we all kind of kept our daggers. It occurred to us afterwards that we really should've left them somewhere but then it might be hard because we already needed to have no body so if we just left the dagger lying around with no body it might be suspicious. Plus do you know how long it took to engrave my name on that dagger and have it be legible?" Delf demanded. "So I got a letter the other day. He said I can live if I kill the other two and bring him their daggers."

"I wonder if they got a note as well or if he didn't know where they were and so wants you to hunt them down for him," Fayne said.

"I don't think it matters. Well, it might if it keeps them from coming for me. Point is I need them killed and the daggers taken as proof to the Red Legion. I'd go myself but then I'd have to kill people and I don't trust them not to kill me anyway. If you go I have a chance at being forgiven and the leader keeping his word without taking the risk," Delf explained.

"But wait…if I said I was going to kill all of the Red Legion that obviously means the leader, too. Why would I need to kill the other two deserters if I'm just going to kill the last guy?" Fayne asked reasonably.

Delf winced. "I'm not saying that I doubt that you can single-handedly kill everyone or anything, even though you've got to admit that that's pretty ridiculous, but you, um, sort of need to have the daggers as proof before he'll let you meet with him."

Fayne held up two fingers. "Two things. One, I have no intention of asking to meet with him. I'm just going to kill everyone. And two, I could just lie about the daggers."

"Ah, well, I suppose you could do that. But what if a second-in-command or someone wants to see the daggers first? No, it's just better to kill them and then go to the Red Legion. One of them is just crazy. I don't even really remember why he wanted to leave the Red Legion. I guess he wanted to kill who he wanted to kill without the orders and the structure. The other one is a good man, like me. He's still struggling with his demons and is actually still here in town. We go for a drink sometimes. Shame it had to end this way."

"It really doesn't have to end this way," Fayne told him, frustrated. "And I'm not sure that I'd say that someone was a good man like you when you're planning on having him killed out of sheer, I don't even know, laziness? Unoriginality?"

"Look, you don't have to help me," Delf said, getting annoyed himself. "You could always just go and leave me to my fate because Mitharu knows I won't actually deal with my own problems like a grown-up. It's just that you offered."

"But if I kill the Red Legion they can't kill you first and even if I miss a few they'll be a little busy to be worrying about you!" Fayne pointed out. She sighed. "Fine, whatever. I suppose I did offer. But you're really, really bad at being pious if you're still willing to hire someone to kill people for you."

Delf drew back. "Who said anything about hiring?"

Fayne closed her eyes and counted to ten. "Do you have any idea where to find them?"

"Oh, sure, I'll just mark where they are on your map," Delf said, holding out his hand for said map.

Fayne started. "I have a map? I have a map! That should make this so much easier! But don't actually write on it. I'm going to need to use this long after I've dealt with you. Just point to where it is and I'll try and remember."

"But what if you're doing twenty quests all at once?" Delf asked. "Do you really think you'll be able to remember where everything is?"

"Why would I agree to do twenty quests all at once?" Fayne countered. "That sounds like a terrible idea."

"You say that now but just wait until you agree to find peasant clothes or rat meat for someone and they refuse to stop pestering you for more and considering your task completed no matter how many times you come through for them," Delf said.

"In that case I'd just get another piece of paper and write down where they're supposed to be there," Fayne replied. "If I really had twenty quests I needed to mark the location of on my map then chances are my map would be utterly unreadable anyway."

"Ugnar Odgray is the troubled one and he's actually right here in town," Delf said, pointing to the spot on the map. "Itran the Shade is the crazy one and while I'm not entirely positive where he is, there's been enough complaints and rumors that I'm fairly certain that he's here."

"Is Ugnar Odgray his real name or his alias?" Fayne asked.

Delf stared at her. "I don't get your meaning."

"Well if he's really faked his own death to escape a gang and is trying not to be noticed, he can't possibly be going by his real name, can he?" Fayne asked rhetorically. "Similarly, I'm assuming Delf isn't your real name because using your real name is just stupid and just asking for the Red Legion to find out that you aren't really dead."

"I…really really wish that you had been with us when we were faking our deaths," Delf said ruefully. "Perhaps then we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place."

"Both?" Fayne realized, horrified. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "You know, I can't deal with this. I really can't. I'm really not even sure that you deserve to survive this, for moral and intelligence reasons, but I already said I'd help so I'll deal with this."


	3. Chapter 3

She went off to find Ugnar first. He was sleeping outside with the pigs and the sight made Fayne reconsider exactly how kind she was planning on being.

"Excuse me," she said loudly, hoping to wake him up. It took a few tries but then he just stood up casually to face her which was a much better reaction that she would have had. "Your name is Ugnar, isn't it? I'd like to advise that in the future if you're trying to fake your own death and start over you should probably change your name."

"That does sound like good advice," Ugnar said thoughtfully. "Any particular reason that you think that I might have need of it?"

"Well I was talking to Delf and-" Fayne began.

"Delf?" Ugnar interrupted. "I always knew he'd come for me eventually. He's kind of a terrible person, you know."

"Oh, I know," Fayne agreed grimly.

"But to hire a sword instead of killing me himself…Well you won't get my dagger without a fight!" Ugnar said threatening, his dagger suddenly in his hand.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say 'hired'," Fayne said. "And yeah, obviously I don't expect you to just stand there while I kill you. But since I'm planning to just kill whoever the leader of the Red Legion is in the first place-"

"Red Idward," Ugnar cut in.

Fayne paused. "Really? That's a stupid name."

Ugnar shrugged. "He has red hair."

"And? It's not that uncommon. It's not like he has green hair or anything," Fayne said. "Did he name the entire gang after his hair color?"

"He's very proud of it," Ugnar told her.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Oh, whatever. Anyway now I feel even more like killing this guy and all of his followers. I'm not even sure why I'm bothering with this dagger business. But since I am and I'm not as terrible as Delf, how about you just give me your dagger and I'll say I killed you?"

Ugnar shook his head. "I can't do that. I'll need some way to protect myself if anyone comes after me. Even if Delf doesn't or you get to the Red Legion in time there's always Itran."

"That is a good point," Fayne admitted reluctantly. "I know! How about I give you a new dagger to replace the one I took?"

"That sounds good to me," Ugnar agreed.

Fayne held out a few daggers, Ugnar took one, and Fayne pocketed his dagger.

"May I say that I am so glad that you were the one dealing with this and not Delf?"

"I can see why you'd say that even though I'd just as soon rather not be involved," Fayne replied. She went to go find Itran next.

He started jumping around when he saw her. "You're here to kill me, aren't you? Well, even if you're not I'm going to kill you anyway. Not just to be safe although that's a part of it. I just like killing people."

"I feel like I would be perfectly justified at this point if I did just kill him," Fayne said consideringly. "But at the same time, I feel like that's what Delf would do."

"I'm definitely going to kill Delf," Itran said. "I actually have a good reason for it and everything."

Fayne nodded. "I know you do. But how about you give me your dagger and I'll go kill Red Idward and the others for you and I'll even leave you with another dagger if you need the protection."

Itran laughed at that. "Who wouldn't have more than one weapon to protect them?"

"Ugnar for one," Fayne said.

"He always was a softie at heart," Itran said disgustedly. "I don't even know why he joined the Red Legion in the first place. It was his idea to leave, you know. But I'll tell you what. If you give me 900 gold pieces then I'll just give you my dagger."

"900! I'll be doing you a favor!" Fayne protested. "And I've been trying to save up to buy a backpack and that's more than 7000 gold pieces!"

"That's really not my problem," Itran pointed out.

"It's because my armor and weapons keep getting damaged," Fayne continued to complain, mindless of her listener's apathy. "The blacksmith keeps ripping me off! Maybe I should look into repair kits. But then I'd have to learn how to blacksmith myself and I kind of really don't want to."

"Look, do you want the dagger or not?"

"Fine," Fayne grumbled, handing over the money.

Itran handed her the dagger. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."

"I'm going to go now," Fayne said, turning to leave.

To her surprise, Itran took out a different dagger and charged at her. "I'm not going down without a fight!"

"What?" she asked, confused. "I thought we agreed this fight wasn't happening! And don't tell me you were just trying to rip me off before killing me because you could have just looted my corpse!"

Itran didn't respond and Fayne was forced to gut him.

"Well that was a gigantic waste of time," she said, bending down and searching him. "I guess he really was crazy. And where is my money anyway? I literally saw him take it and put it in his pocket not five minutes ago! This is ridiculous."

Finally giving up, Fayne took what she could salvage and headed for the Red Legion camp. It was in what she considered an improbably large cave.

She saw a man right as she entered the cave.

"What are you doing down here? Don't you know it's haunted?" the man asked her.

Fayne shrugged. "What are you doing down here? Personally, I figure ghosts can't hurt me so I won't care or I can hurt them back in which case I can deal with it."

"What if they're special ghosts who can hurt you but are intangible so you can't hurt them back?" the man challenged.

"Then that would be really stupid. But anyway, I don't suppose it's too much to ask that you're Nanne Hanri's apprentice Karth, is it?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

The man started. "Actually, that is exactly who I am."

"Excellent, that saves times and I don't have to worry about accidentally killing him – you – while I'm slaughtering my way through this cave," Fayne said, pleased.

"For all Nanne was some kind of genius, she was also a fool for not seeing how I was obviously evil," Karth boasted.

Fayne winced. "Can you maybe not call her that?"

"What? Nanne? It's her name. She insists everyone call her that," Karth said, confused.

"Yeah but somehow the way you say it is so very creepy and mocking and disrespectful and vaguely sexually harassing," Fayne explained. "So stop."

"Well what am I supposed to call her then?"

" 'Her' works. Or 'she.' And maybe you weren't that obviously evil," Fayne said.

Karth shook his head. "Trust me. I was pretty obviously evil."

"You do know what that formula does, right?" Fayne asked him.

Karth nodded. "Yes, she eventually trusted I wasn't too stupid to understand the idea of a formula being used to kill people. Her explanation was pretty insulting but I suppose that's one more reason why I'm here."

"Care to explain to me why you think handing a group of violent and short-sighted criminals like the Red Legion who are probably going to use it to kill a great deal of innocent people and will probably accidentally drop it or something and cause a plague?" Fayne asked.

"I want to join the Red Legion but they're not really impressed with me so I have to do something really badass like this to join," Karth explained.

"It's just a really stupid idea."

"It's not my fault what people use what I give them for," Karth said stubbornly.

"Even though you pretty much know exactly what's going to happen with this?" Fayne challenged.

"I don't believe in personal responsibility," Karth told her.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "What are you, a Fateweaver?"

"No, why? Do they not believe in personal responsibility either? Maybe I should look into joining them. Now look, I know that I had no real reason to tell you my evil plan or to further clarify that the formula is hidden in ten wooden crates in this cave right now so if you smash all the wooden crates you see you'll be able to save the day but the fact remains that I did. It was stupid of me but it happened. I can't take that back. And I really can't have you go back to Na-to her and tell her what I've done so I've got to kill you. Nothing personal, you understand."

"What, seriously?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "You don't want her to know? She pretty much already does."

"She's a fool and I can concoct some story as long as you're not around to contradict me. In fact, I could probably get her to believe me anyway but why take that chance?"

"Are you seriously trying to join a gang and keep your job?" Fayne asked incredulously.

"I feel like saying 'yes' would make you want to bang your head against a wall but I'm not really sure why," Karth admitted. "She pays great."

"Then why do you want to do this?" Fayne demanded.

"Because the Red Legion are awesome."

"I'm just going to go kill you now," Fayne informed him before doing just that. She then proceeded to hack her way through the cave, taking special care to destroy every crate she had seen. She didn't know when she actually got a crate but she just had to have faith that she was getting them. When she was looting all of the bodies, she found a few daggers that had the same last name on them so while she couldn't actually remember the brothers whose daggers she was supposed to get she figured she probably had them.

Finally, she arrived at a redheaded man that she could only assume was the deeply uninspired Red Idward.

"I've just watched you slaughter your way through my men," Idward said. "I really don't want you to kill me as well."

Fayne drew back, surprised. "That's rather sensible of you!"

"You sounds surprised," Idward said, glaring a bit.

Fayne shrugged apologetically. "Well most people around here haven't been too sensible. And I think insisting on calling yourself 'Red Idward' and naming all of your little gang members after your hair color is rather stupid."

"Well what would you rather I call them?" Idward asked her.

"I…don't know," Fayne admitted. "But that's why I'm not in a position where I would need to name a gang."

"It's just not very fair of you to say that I shouldn't have a gang because I couldn't think of an original name for them," Idward complained. "And it's not like if I had chosen a different name like Idward the Terrible or something that that would have been more original either."

"No, I suppose not," Fayne agreed. "The sheer number of criminals and gang leaders make all the best names so cliché. But I'm sure you're not the only one to seize on calling yourself the Red!"

"Maybe not but at least I have red hair," Idward said. "Could you imagine if I were to try and call myself the Brown Idward? Or worse, the Yellow Idward? And if we were going by eye color everyone would just get so confused."

"Stop trying to make me feel like your really stupid gang name isn't really stupid!" Fayne ordered.

"You're just saying that because it's working," Idward said smugly. "And while we're on the topic of stupid behavior, why did I watch you keep activating Lorestones and then walking away without listening to what they were saying?"

"Well I didn't care what they were saying," Fayne replied. "And I can't listen to fae talk for too long without getting a little annoyed because their voice does that weird thing. I don't know how to describe it. It's really too bad because otherwise I love the fae."

"I believe the word you're looking for is flanging," Idward told her.

Fanyne stared at him. "What the hell is a flanging?"

"It's the word to describe the strange effect that fae voices have," Idward said. "I couild be more specific but that would be getting all technical and I'm sure you don't care."

"How about you let me be the judge of whether I care or not?"

Idward looked unconvinced but nodded. "Alright then. Flanging is an audio effect produced by mixing two identical signals together, one signal delayed by a small and gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds. This produces-"

Fayne held up a hand. "Okay, you're right, I don't care."

Idward smirked triumphantly.

"So I can't listen to fae talk for too long as it is and them telling long boring stories about things that happened ages ago just isn't very interesting to me so I sort of walk away after I activate them," Fayne explained.

"But then why activate them in the first place?" Idward asked.

"I…don't know. I might be kind of a completionist. I see a new Lorestone and I just have to activate it," Fayne said. "But if you were being all creepy and spying on me then why didn't you do anything when I was slaughtering your men?"

"Because I'm not so arrogant as to believe that if you could take all of them down so easily that I could stop you," Idward replied. "I mean, I'm significantly stronger than any of my men but not so much stronger that when you're clearly not even trying to kill them I think I could take you."

"Well…now what?" Fayne asked. "I was kind of expecting a battle but I'm not going to just attack somebody that won't fight back. I mean, when I start attacking I'm sure you would but that would make that self-defense on your part and so no matter how terrible of a person you are I'd feel guilty."

"Why are you even here?" Idward asked. "Did you just want to kill us all?"

"Actually, no. I came for three different reasons. Someone asked me to get back her chemical weapon and I think I've destroyed all the crates of it and someone else asked me to kill two people and get their daggers and I've probably done that, too," Fayne answered. "Then since I was already heading out this way somebody asked me about talking to you about some sort of a blood hunt or blood rite or something."

"Ah, that would be Delf then," Idward said, nodding.

Fayne backed away a little. "How can you possibly know that? There were three of them, right? And if you were spying on me enough to know who I was talking to you should know why I'm here."

"There were three people I contacted about a blood rite, yes," Idward agreed. "But honestly only Delf is a terrible enough person to make somebody else do it."

"And he's the one of them who joined a religious order," Fayne mused.

"Joining a religious order isn't proof of goodness," Idward said indifferently. "Besides, this is the same order that wouldn't admit women until five minutes ago and whose whole purpose is converting the perfectly happy fae to their religion even though we all know that it's just never going to happen."

"You do have a point," Fayne conceded.

"So did you kill the other two?" Idward asked.

Fayne took out their daggers.

"Yeah, that's not really an answer," Idward pointed out.

"One of them attacked me even after he said he'd just give me the dagger," Fayne said.

"Maybe he was just lying," Idward suggested.

"But he actually did give me the dagger and took the money and I don't even know how to explain it," Fayne said.

"Was it Itran?" Idward asked. "That sounds like Itran."

"It was," Fayne said, nodding.

"Well this is kind of awkward, especially since you killed all my men and I really don't want to fight you," Idward said, scratching the back of his neck.

"Oh, I'm just going to love this, aren't I?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

"Only Red Legion members can invoke a blood rite, you see," Idward explained. "And Delf and the others all defected so they can't redeem themselves this way. I was going to see who finally went and killed the other two and then kill the survivor. But even if I had been acting in good faith, having someone else kill them for you – and you still haven't confirmed that Ugnar is even dead – wouldn't count."

"So now what?"

"I don't suppose I could convince you to go kill Delf for me, could I?" Idward asked hopefully.

Fayne stared at him in disbelief. "And have to go all the way back to town, kill someone seemingly unprovoked without getting run out of town, and then come all the way back here? Do you have any idea how inconvenient that sounds?"

"You can't possibly be trying to make this decision based on convenience!"

Fayne shrugged. "Well it's not like I'm invested enough to make it for any other reason."

"If you don't care why are you even doing this?" Idward asked.

"I don't even know," Fayne admitted.

"Besides, if you leave for two days or so then the townspeople will forget the most egregious of crimes," Idward informed her.

"But leaving and coming back…not worth it," Fayne decided.

Idward sighed. "I really wish it hadn't come to this."

"You could just not attack me," Fayne pointed out.

Idward chose not to listen to her advice.

\----

When Fayne got back to town, the first thing she did was take her dagger collection to Odura so she could sell what she didn't need.

"I really like my stave," she said. "Scepters look like they could be more powerful but they take up mana with every attack which is ridiculous."

Odura didn't look up from sorting through the pile of daggers she'd placed in front of him. "It's ridiculous now that when you use magic attacks it takes up a little bit of your magical energy?"

Fayne paused. "Okay, when you put it that way it actually makes perfect sense. But it's still annoying and with staves I don't have to use up mana. Though how that works I could not tell you. I think I'm going to go with faeblades, though."

"Any particular reason?" Odura asked, just to be polite.

"They look really cool. Those chakrams look really cool, too, but not as cool as faeblades. And I like the idea of using blades made by and for the fae. I kind of have a thing for fae, I think. Not sure if it's romantically but I definitely think they are really awesome."

"Don't you think that's cultural appropriation?" Odura asked.

Fayne took out her faeblade. "Don't make me hit you with this. In the throat."

"Ah, already forgetting we mere mortals won't return like the fae," Odura said, lightly mocking. "Tell me, is that why you're going by Fayne? Because it's like 'fae' with two other letters?"

"No!" Fayne exclaimed. "Stop trying to analyze my name choice people! It just randomly popped into my head and I liked it!"

"So what you're saying is that for all you know subconsciously you chose it because-"

"NO!"

"Okay, I have found your daggers," Odura said, taking the pair out. "I am not entirely sure why you had to take the dagger of every single person you killed and give all of them to me but I found the ones I was looking for."

"I need money and I need a lot of it. I had to down like eight health potions working my way through the Reds," Fayne explained. "And sure, I could have just waited until my health came back by itself or until my healing recharged but I couldn't be bothered!"

"Whatever makes you happy," Odura said indifferently. He took out a letter and handed it to her. "This is a commendation recommending you to the Warsworn. You could have just gone and asked to join up but they probably wouldn't have let you. With this they'll see that you're a little bit qualified."

"I know that I did, in fact, single-handedly destroy a gang but I really could have succeeded in this just by pickpocketing them," Fayne pointed out. "This really qualifies me to join?"

Obdura shrugged. "It's some basic form of competence. You wouldn't believe all the idiots with no combat experience who want to join to become a badass. I keep telling them that they have to be a badass first and we're not in the business of teaching people that but do they listen? And we need all the bodies we can get so sometimes bad things happen. We're not so desperate yet that we'll take you if you can't hold a sword right but if this siege continues…"

"Siege?" Fayne asked blankly.

Obdura opened his mouth to explain.

"Actually, I don't care. I've got things to do. Thanks for the commendation!" Fayne said, waving to him before running off.

She went to Delf next.

"You know, it's really weird," he told her. "We were having all kinds of recruitment problems because our mission has never had a success ever and nobody actually thinks the fae are ever going to convert. It's really just the principle of the thing at this point and our love for the great Mitharu. But ever since Sister Zelda mysteriously found proof that Mitharu didn't reject female worshipers, we've got lots of new blood coming in! Before we were so desperate for people we had to go chasing after every idiot who ran away to go become a fae. Now we can just let nature take care of that."

"It's almost like keeping half your available recruitment population out might not be the best for your numbers or something," Fayne said sarcastically.

"It's weird, I know, but I swear that it must be something like that," Delf said seriously. "But anyway, what happened with the Red Legion?"

"I single-handedly killed pretty much all of them," Fayne bragged.

"I'm not saying that I don't believe you but I am saying that I got ambushed by five of them when I was taking a walk while you were over there with that Warsworn guy," Delf said.

Fayne crossed her arms and huffed. "Is it my fault not literally all of them were there? I killed everyone who was there."

"For all you know, most of them were out terrorizing people," Delf pointed out.

"I killed a ton of them!" Fayne protested. "And anyway I never promised anyone that I was going to kill literally anyone."

"Maybe nobody asked you to but I could have sworn I heard you say-" Delf started to say.

"Okay, look, Idward is dead."

Delf's shoulders slumped. "Oh thank Mitharu that this is now behind me!"

"Or, you know, you could thank me. Since Mitharu really didn't have anything to do with your problems resolving themselves."

"It is a shame that Ugnar and Itran didn't live to see this day," Delf said heavily.

"Itran, not really. I have no idea why he randomly attacked me once we worked out a plan where he wouldn't. He really got what was coming to him," Fayne said bluntly. "Ugnar isn't even dead, though. Don't you guys live in the same really small village? How could you have failed to notice that?"

"I was mostly hiding in the mission while you were gone in case Ugnar or Itran or any other Reds came after me," Delf admitted.

"Except for that one walk you took where you got ambushed by five of them."

"Except for that, yes," Delf agreed, nodding. "They didn't seem to know who I was, though. It's almost like most people can just let it go or something and not obsess about everyone who fakes their deaths and goes into hiding."

"Weird."

"I'm kind of annoyed at you for not killing Ugnar when you said you would-"

"I'm pretty sure I didn't-"

Delf ignored the interruption. "But ultimately it worked out so I forgive you."

"I don't even care," Fayne told him. "Goodbye. Try to be a better person in the future. Your redemption is so not convincing."

"It is, actually," Delf called after her. "You don't even want to know what I was like before all of this!"

Fayne silently agreed and went to go find Nanne Hanri.

"What are you doing back here?" Nanne demanded. "Did you forget that you promised you would help me. I know you're really stupid but, please, this is important. Lives are at stake!"

Fayne narrowed her eyes. "If you think I'm so stupid I'd forget why did you even entrust this to me in the first place?"

"Well, I didn't have a lot of options, did I?" Nanne asked rhetorically. "Everyone who isn't too weak to help was either too cowardly or just too apathetic about the possibility of thousands of innocent deaths. But I understand, I really do. These are busy people with busy lives."

"Am I just the only one you randomly judge?" Fayne demanded.

"I'm not randomly judging you. I can just literally feel your stupidity from here," Nanne explained.

"You didn't deserve my help," Fayne said, glaring.

Nanne put her hands on her hips. "Oh, who put that idea in your head?"

"You did. By being so awful. But just so you know, I found and killed Karth and destroyed the formula," Fayne told her.

Nanne threw her hands up in the air. "Well that's not what I wanted at all! Maybe I should have just not bothered to do anything at all! Why would you kill my poor apprentice and destroy my formula? I needed that!"

"It turns out your apprentice was evil. Obviously evil according to him."

"Don't be ridiculous," Nanne scoffed. "If he were obviously evil I would have noticed. You must have misunderstood."

"How could I possibly have misunderstood 'I'm obviously evil'?" Fayne demanded.

"I couldn't tell you. It must be trying to be so very stupid," Nanne said condescendingly.

Fayne closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm just going to leave now because I'm getting dangerously close to killing you."

"So brutish!" Nanne sniffed.

"I didn't know you wanted the formula back and maybe that's just me being 'stupid', I don't know. But I'm glad I did it. I don't trust you with that kind of power. Please, please, please don't recreate it."

"I'll take it under advisement," Nanne said diplomatically. "You think you might understand the impact of saving us but you don't."

"What could I possibly not understand about what saving people means? It means people don't die! This isn't hard!"

"Now, now, don't beat yourself up," Nanne said soothingly.

Fayne stomped out of the building and left that whole damn town behind.

She found a young woman in a bunch of ruins. Why were there so many ruins around anyway? Yes there was a war and whatnot but it was supposed to be really far away.

"Finally," the woman said in an atrocious voice. "I thought only the Warsworn came this way and I can't have them getting involved with this highly questionable activity. Plus they hate travelers."

Fayne gave her a strange look, trying not to wince. "Why would they hate travelers?"

"Not travlers travelers, Travelers," the woman tried to clarify.

"Yeah that's not actually making any more sense," Fayne said bluntly.

The woman sighed. "My name is Penri Kell and I'm with this loosely connected organization of thieves called the Travelers. If you ever steal something, we're pretty much the only ones who will buy it from you."

"How would people even know if I stole something?" Fayne asked.

Penri shrugged. "I don't know. They just do. Total hardasses."

"Wait! Warsworn!" Fayne exclaimed suddenly.

"What about them?" Penri asked. "They're kind of our mortal enemies. They don't appreciate our lack of any regard for laws. Or anything else, really."

"You guys sound like winners," Fayne deadpanned. "I just realized why they're called that. Maybe it's just the way people pronounce it and the emphasis on different parts but I never realized it's because they are sworn to war."

"Well yeah," Penri said, beginning to look at her much like Nanne had. "What did you think?"

"I don't know! And stop looking at me like that! It's not like I ever thought it was called that for any other reason. I just hadn't thought about why it was called that and now I have my revelation and I think it's cool and that doesn't make me stupid!" Fayne burst out.

"…Yeah, anyway, I have a job for you. Interested?"

"Not until I hear what this job is. What do you take me for anyway?" Fayne asked.

"Most Travelers don't deal with fae because they're not big on money and kind of creepy. But there's this ballad about a ruby ring and I want it so you need to help me," Penri explained.

"What does a ballad have to do with a ring?" Fayne wondered. "Is it a treasure map or something and it's never been claimed?"

"No, the ballad is about how the ring can be recovered. A maiden has a ring stolen from her by a troll and seeks a brave champion to reclaim it. I'll be the maiden and you be the champion," Penri said.

"That's it? That sounds kind of…petty and not worthy of a ballad. Oh, no, some woman had a ring stolen! Some guy got it back! A troll was probably killed! Whatever," Fayne said, disgusted. "Why would a troll even steal a ring and not kill the woman or something? Did she leave it and the troll just picked it up or something?"

"It can't all be epic, I suppose," Penri said, disinterested.

"But…it doesn't even make sense!" Fayne protested. "You didn't lose the ring. If someone else lost the ring you can't take her part. Did a ring just magically materialize? If you take the ring and sell it then will the ballad never be able to take place again? Will the fae have to find it and buy it back? Will the ring disappear one day and go back to the troll? Will the ring last after the ballad is over? Did the troll magically materialize? Did the-"

"I don't know," Penri interrupted, annoyed. "Ask the fae. But they'll probably get offended, just warning you. In the meantime, just go get the damn ring. Kill some animals to prove your prowess as a hunter and attract the troll."

"How will I be attracting the troll? Through the scent? What kind of hunting prowess will I be displaying by walking up to some antelope and hitting them with my faeblade?" Fayne demanded. "And why do I need to display my hunting prowess anyway? Does the troll just have a personal crusade against hunters or something? Is it actually an activist troll?"

Penri twitched. "Still not a fae. Just do it."

Sighing, Fayne went over, killed a few antelope, cut their heads off, tried not to get too much icky stuff on her hands, went back to Penri, found out she needed to put the heads on a ruin, and did so. A troll appeared and she took it down pretty easily before locating the ring and then Penri rushed over.

"Success!" Penri exclaimed. "Thanks a bunch. That went great. Ring please."

Because of how much Penri annoyed her, through no real fault of her own, Fayne briefly considered just keeping the ring. She could probably persuade Penri. Who knew? Maybe she could convince her that the very object Penri was seeking would be a suitable reward for helping retrieve the object. But Fayne would just end up selling it anyway and didn't think what she had to go through to get it was worth whatever little money she could get for it. At least Penri seemed genuinely excited about this.

"Here you go," Fayne said, reluctantly handing it over.

"Thanks again! Here's your reward," Penri said, handing over her money. "You know, there's an old saying about the Travelers."

"Am I likely to care?"

"They say kiss a traveler and count your teeth!" Penri told her.

Fayne made a face and fought the sudden, powerful urge to gag. "Ew! Why would you tell me that! Bad mental images! Ew!"

"I…sorry. I didn't mean to…you know what, I'm just going to go," Penri said awkwardly.


	4. Chapter 4

Fayne checked the sign in front of the house she was passing by in case it was anything interesting.

"Adren's hut," she mused. "I'm pretty sure that's the place Agarth wanted me to go to to see if I really don't have fate. Against all odds, I appear to have found it. Or perhaps I'm not as fateless as he seems to think and I was meant to. Either way, I don't really feel like dealing with this right now."

The door opened and a man came out. "Can I help you?"

Fayne shook her head. "Not right now. I may be back eventually, I don't know."

"I'll be sure to wait for you then," the man said, rolling his eyes a little as he shut the door.

"Now, on to find the House of Ballads!" Fayne exclaimed, returning to her trek.

When she finally reached it, she felt suddenly and inexplicably nervous and she knew that she had to not overreact and make a fool of herself. But everything looked so amazing and was green and clearly magical!

She went up to the first fae she saw.

"Yes?" the fae asked politely.

"You're part of the House of Ballads!"

"I get that a lot," the fae said. "Was there something else or did you just want to inform me of this fact?"

Fayne coughed. "Actually, there was. A member of the House of Ballads was attacked and-"

The fae held up a hand. "I'm going to stop you right there. This sounds very serious but I'm not really the person to speak to about that. Go see Hallam the White. He's meditating right over there."

"Ah, that makes sense. When reporting something don't just go up to the first person you see and expect them to be the right one," Fayne said, nodding. She went over the meditating fae. It seemed pretty rude to just interrupt a meditation even if it was important so she stood by him and waited for him to notice her. Unfortunately, his eyes were closed so she engaged in a silent battle of wills and eventually just lost her patience entirely. "Excuse me."

Hallam had been sitting cross-legged and stood up without using his hands with a certain kind of poise that Fayne envied fiercely. "This does not concern you, mortal."

Fayne was understandably confused. "This? What are you talking about?"

"Sir Sagrell's passing, of course. A seat in the House of Ballads is suddenly empty and that can't be allowed to stand," Hallam explained.

"That's great and all but that what's what I came here to say," Fayne told him. "I also didn't come here to say that this place is amazing and I want to live here but now that I'm here I feel it would be a waste if I didn't say that."

Hallam inclined his head. "That's very kind, mortal. What did you come here to say then?"

"Illuvia is off in Gorhart and she was injured. We think she'll probably be fine and it's impossible to say just how badly she was hurt but someone who may or may not be the leader of the town, I wasn't really paying attention, suggested that I go tell you guys about it. Or that I hire the Warsworn to save us from your vengeance but this option was cheaper and I wanted an excuse to come see you anyway," Fayne explained.

Hallam frowned and tapped his chin. "Is that so? Normally Galin would be the one to go to about such matters but as you are mortal there's a good chance he would refuse to speak to you out of concern for his reputation."

"It would hurt his reputation to talk to a mortal?" Fayne asked, not liking the sound of that. "I notice you don't seem all that concerned."

"I'm Hallam the White," Hallam replied. "If my reputation couldn't even withstand a little mortal conversation now and again then it wouldn't be much of a reputation at all, would it?"

Fayne nodded her agreement.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to Iluvia? She's a more recalcitrant member of the House but she is still one of us and we are concerned. Does it have anything to do with the village of Gorhart or is their fear of us just random paranoia?" Hallam inquired.

"Well, I'm not exactly sure because I wasn't there but I'm pretty sure what happened was the local bandits attacked her for some reason, which is weird because apparently your people don't use a lot of money, and everyone in town just sort of stood by and watched and didn't do anything. Then the possible leader of the town wanted to help her but was too scared to ask another fae what to do and was really worried about your reaction to the attack anyway," Fayne answered.

"That certainly doesn't sound good. I don't understand the mortal tendency to fear something and then attack it, especially since we have done nothing to them to deserve it," Hallam said. "Surely they must be able to tell the difference between us and the Tuatha! They certainly seem to be able to keep the two different species of alfar distinct despite the fact that they look far more similar than the Tuatha and ourselves."

"I don't get it, either. But then, I'm not scared of fae," Fayne said. "So…retribution? Is that going to happen?"

Hallam shook his head. "We don't want to start a fight. We just want people to stop attacking us. Tell them that they have nothing to fear so long as the status quo remains."

"Can I put a little fear into them about how next time don't just stand around staring at an attack in broad daylight? The Red Legion never would have tried it on a human in the center of town because they simply wouldn't have been able to deal with the entire town," Fayne said.

"If you wish," Hallam told her.

"Oh, I do," Fayne said, smiling predatorily. "But since I'm here anyway, I've got a few questions about this Sir Sagrell incident."

"Ask away."

"So Sir Sagrell died. I thought in the House of Ballads, members die all the time when it's called for by the story," Fayne said.

"That's the key phrase, though, when it's called for by the story," Hallam explained. "In this story, Sir Sagrell was meant to slay the Grave Thresh but Sagrell was instead killed by it."

"And that means he's fired?" Fayne asked. "Because it seems like otherwise he'd come back just as the others do."

"I don't know about 'fired' but we need someone to kill the grave thresh. And that is why this has such urgency. Every key figure in our court has been replaced time and time again when they weary of the role and must find a new path to take. But they only do it in between ballads! For this to happen with the maid still kidnapped and the grave thresh still living is very serious indeed," Hallam said.

"And has a telling ever been changed like this before?" Fayne asked.

Hallam shook his head. "No, never."

"Not that I'm trying to dispute the heroism of your heroes or wondering why you guys can't just write these things down instead of constantly relieving them because, though it's a valid question, I think what you guys are doing is really really cool. But I do find myself still needing to ask how heroic it really is to go on a quest that you know you can't lose at. I mean, the first Sir Sagrell that had to go rescue that woman and kill that grave thresh would undoubtedly be heroic. But for everyone else to go through the motions and know that it was all going to work out? That somehow…lessens the effect."

"That is certainly an interesting way of looking at it," Hallam said diplomatically. "But the risks are just as real every time the telling is carried out. That was how Sir Sagrell was able to be killed this time despite his many, many victories in the past. And whenever a seat is empty, everyone who wishes to replace him all go out and try to complete the ballad. The first one to succeed is the one to take the place of the hero. This way, they have already proven that they can overcome the dangers in the telling. And in completing the same challenges as the original heroes, we can say that our new heroes are every bit the equal of the original heroes. We are not irresponsible, mortal."

"I see," Fayne said slowly.

"I suspect there is something else."

"Not really, just a sort of general inquiry strictly for, um, theoretical purposes," Fayne said, looking anywhere but at him. "Can I, I mean, can anyone compete to be Sir Sagrell? Does it have to be a fae? I mean, I'm sure that the fae would have an advantage and they could certainly keep the part for longer but it's a part that isn't supposed to end in death so theoretically it seems like a mortal could be him."

Hallam smiled tolerantly. "You wish to know if you could join the competition? Certainly. As you have mentioned, you would not be able to hold it as long as most but there are often years between the tellings so it would not disrupt your life overmuch. Many would be scandalized by your even wishing to participate and we have never had a non-fae in our court before but they will not think you will succeed. In truth, the odds of any one participant being chosen are not very high given the scarcity of open positions. If you prove the most worthy then you will deserve to be Sir Sagrell no matter what your species."

Fayne couldn't help but smile at that.

"Just remember, Sir Sagrell is one of our most beloved heroes," Hallam told her. "Of course, they're all one of our most beloved but that does not take away from the love we have for them!"

He told her where the ballad took place and she headed off to try her luck, confident that this was a better use of her time than speaking to Arden.

"Oh, what are you doing here?" a fae complained when he saw her enter the cave.

"I'm here to try and become Sir Sagrell," Fayne explained. "My name is Fayne."

"And I am Ficon," Ficon admitted. "I can't believe that you being here is actually allowed! This story belongs to one of us, not some whelp fresh from the cradle."

"Actually, I'm fresh from the grave," Fayne corrected. "I died and came back to life."

Ficon paused, looking uncertain. "Well that does sound very fae-like. Can you do this whenever you want? It would be a help if you were trying to be one of those who dies during their telling though Sir Sagrell is not supposed to. But you're not a fae. Still, you probably have permission and even if you don't I can't very well force you to leave without outright killing you and that seems a little harsh. Sir Sagrell's story is a twisted one anyway and we could use all the help we could get."

"So…you're saying you want to help you prove that you can handle this tale all by yourself?" Fayne asked skeptically.

Ficon flushed a dark blue. "When you put it that way it sounds a little ridiculous but it is really not! We are at a disadvantage in this tale! There was a mysterious maid and the thresh went to sleep so we can't get to it because it is protected by vines. If I should win this then in my next telling I won't have these complications and can satisfactorily beat it on my own."

"Wait, maid? What maid? And I think we need to clarify what you mean by 'maid.' My people would use that to mean a woman who has never had sex," Fayne said.

Ficon looked confused. "That's a very strange way of defining something! No, no, a maid is merely a woman in the prime of her life. When she begins to wrinkle and her hair turns gray then she is no longer a maid."

"Got it," Fayne said, nodding. "I guess Penri was a fit after all. Not that we need to talk about that or anything! Though I do wonder if that means I'm already some hero of legend…but seriously, never mind."

"It would be easier to do that if you would stop dropping tantalizing hints like that in front of me," Ficon pointed out.

"So, this strange maid you mentioned," Fayne said loudly. "What was that about?"

"I don't know," Ficon said. "She was just there, smirking knowingly at me, and left. I don't trust her."

"That does sound rather ominous but I guess we can worry about it later. In the meantime, why don't we just burn the vines?" Fayne asked. "We may even hurt the grave thresh while we're at it?"

"No, no, we couldn't possibly do that!" Ficon said, shocked.

"Why not? Too practical?" Fayne asked sarcastically.

"I don't fancy the thought of a fire getting out of control," Ficon said. "And I'm a summer fae. Even if we could control the fire, it's against my nature to burn living things."

"Then what do you suggest?" Fayne asked.

"We should destroy the heart vines that hold him and rouse him that way," Ficon told her.

"So destroying plants are fine so long as we don't burn them?" Fayne asked skeptically. "And what's a heart vine anyway?"

Ficon shrugged. "I didn't make the rules."

Fayne sighed. "Very well then."

"I will keep the beast occupied while you seek out the heart vines," Ficon told her.

"But…I thought my job was to destroy the heart vines so we'd wake the thresh up so it would attack us and we could kill it," Fayne protested. "Why would you need to distract it if our whole goal is to wake it up? If it's already up and in need of a distraction, why would I need to destroy any vines at all?"

But Ficon had already run off.

Fayne sighed. "So I guess we're going with this plan then."

She destroyed the vines and then met up with Ficon again standing over a dead body.

"I know that it might look suspicious, me standing over a corpse and you not being here to see what happened," Ficon began. "But I swear I had nothing to do with it."

"I believe you," Fayne said.

Ficon sighed in relief. "That's something, at least. I just don't understand! This is Sir Sagrell! I don't understand. How can he be dead? This has never happened before!"

"Not for nothing, but you're sounding awfully surprised by this given that the only reason we're even doing this competition for the spot of Sir Sagrell is that we knew he was dead," Fayne said. "Though if his body wasn't recovered and the thresh wasn't killed, I'm not sure how anyone even knew."

"There's knowing and then there's knowing," Ficon clarified.

"Well I'm going to take his things," Fayne decided, bending down to do just that.

"That seems a little tasteless," Ficon complained. "And…here comes the thresh!"

"Found the ring!" Fayne exclaimed.

"No!"

Working together, they quickly took out the thresh and all the various creatures that also attacked them.

"I can't believe a mortal became Sir Sagrell," Ficon complained. "We should head back and then I'm going to need to drink a lot to get over this indignity."

"As long as you have a healthy coping plan," Fayne replied.

\----

Hallam made no secret of his surprise when Fayne returned with Sagrell's ring. "A mortal! This is just so very unusual. I suppose we should just be glad we even have a Sir Sagrell, especially given that poor planning has meant that Sir Farrara's tale is also ongoing and we need you to go help out there."

"I…what?"

"Sir Farrara is a part of the tale of Bloody Bones. A maid was kidnapped Sir Farrara had been very selfish for all of his life. He gave his life rescuing her and defeating Bloody Bones," Hallam explained.

"So him dying is supposed to be the good ending? And not just good because it is in keeping with the traditional telling of the tale," Fayne clarified.

"He was selfish and learned how to be selfless," Hallam said.

"Yeah but can't he learn that without having to die? It's already selfless enough risking his life to save the anonymous maid," Fayne pointed out.

"It's much more selfless to die."

"Maybe but what good is character growth if you're too dead to do anything about it?" Fayne asked.

"It's the culmination of a redemption arc. This is the destination and not the journey," Hallam said. "And that brings me to your part anyway. Sir Sagrell goes out and revives Sir Farrara with this potion and the two of them go on to be great friends."

"Wait, wait, wait."

Hallam looked confused. "What?"

"So the fae already die and come back naturally but now there's a potion you have that can 'revive' someone from death?" Fayne couldn't believe it.

"Oh, yes," Hallam said, nodding.

"So why not do this all the time? Why not do it when Sir Sagrell – the previous one, I mean – died so unexpectedly?" Fayne asked.

"It would be as wasteful to use a revival potion on everyone who dies as it is for you to drink a health potion every time you stub your toe," Hallam said. "I cannot speak of why Sir Sagrell chooses to revive Sir Farrara just then. Perhaps you would be better suited to answer that question, Sagrell. And in the case of your predecessor, not only was him being revived not a part of the tale but he failed to fulfill his part in it. Clearly the time had come for a new Sir Sagrell."

"I…think that might make sense. But you guys are kind of in a rut," Fayne said.

"We like it that way," Hallam said. He handed her the revival potion. "Now please go see King Wencen. He'll tell you what you need to do."

"I thought you told me what to do."

"Just go see him anyway," Hallam ordered. "He'll give you more specifics on the location of the next ballad and as our king he wishes to welcome the next Sir Sagrell into the fold personally."

"I don't believe I've ever met a king before," Fayne said thoughtfully.

"He is the fifth King Wencen to hold that distinction," Hallam told her.

She suddenly wondered if Hallam was his name or his title but wasn't sure on the etiquette of asking. Everyone had just sort of volunteered who else was an original and who had a name they passed on to the most worthy.

"But he's still a king even if he's not really Wencen."

"He is the most authentic Wencen we have," Hallam told her.

\----

She found King Wencen mediating (what was it with fae and medicating? She had tried it once for what she could have sworn was an hour and a half easy but was apparently merely fifteen minutes. Or at least she thought she had. Strange that she knew that and nothing else about herself) by what at first glance appeared to be a felled Jotun but upon further inspection she saw it was actually a shrine or some other weird fae thing. Too bad. That might have made him more interesting.

"When Hallam told me a mortal had taken the part of Sir Sagrell I did not believe him," Wencen said by way of greeting.

"Why not?" Fayne asked reasonably. "Does he have a history of lying to you?"

"Well, no, but it's just so very…odd."

"Why is it that none of my kind have ever taken a part like this before?" Fayne wondered. "It can't be that we're just not strong enough and not all of the parts require a death. Is it just that none have tried? Because if that's the case, what's so surprising about my succeeding once I've already tried?"

"I think it's mostly that you're the first to ever try," Wencen said. "It's too bad that we don't have time to properly mourn Sir Sagrell but we do have to get on with the next telling. None of us planned that we'd need to replace Sagrell like we did and Sir Farrara should not be made to suffer for this oversight. Perhaps when the telling is done we can toast our fallen hero."

Fayne shook her head in marvelment. "You guys have so much cognitive dissonance going on! I'm Sir Sagrell, I've done what he has done, and yet there is another Sir Sagrell to mourn and who knows how many before him?"

"I don't see where the cognitive dissonance lies," Wencen replied. "We're not claiming you are the one and only Sir Sagrell."

Fayne decided to just agree to disagree. She knew better than to say the actual words as that tended to annoy people and make them feel like they were forced to end an argument while the other party, especially if they put the 'agree to disagree' suggestion at the end of their position, had gotten the last word. "What can you tell me about Bloody Bones? I know that Sir Farrara must give his life killing Bloody Bones and rescuing a woman that Bloody Bones kidnapped."

"He didn't kill Bloody Bones," Wencen corrected. "In fact, he wasn't capable of killing him. No one is."

"Is that a challenge?" Fayne asked, perking up.

"It isn't because he is literally incapable of dying and even if he could die then we wouldn't appreciate if you broke from the telling to kill him," Wencen said firmly. "Bloody Bones used to be a part of the court of Ysa. Unfortunately, he was kind of a terrible person and abducted Ysa's lover. Ysa was the king of the summer fae long ago. When Ysa caught up to the kidnapper, he cursed him so that he can never die and his twisted form will live on forever."

Fayne made a face. "Look, I really don't want to feel sorry for the vile abductor of women over here but seriously? He annoys Ysa so he is forced to exist eternally? I don't think kidnapping one woman is worth that! We didn't even hear that he seriously mistreated her. Or mistreated her at all aside from the kidnapping. Which is really bad and I'm not defending that. But it's called 'disproportionate retribution.' And think about all those people Ysa put in danger when he cursed Bloody Bones! He should have just permanently killed him and gotten over it."

"That would be barbaric!" Wencen said, shocked. "And Ysa was not looking for the good of his people or justice in this particular instance but pure revenge."

"So I gathered. Not a sign of great king-ing there."

"Before you feel too sorry for him, know that Bloody Bones abducted many maids after that fact and it was only when she took the beloved of lovably rogue Sir Farrara that he was finally stopped," Wencen recited.

"Not killed, of course, so really his sacrifice didn't have much meaning aside from saving his girlfriend even if the tellings didn't get repeated so often," Fayne said. "And all of the abductions, which again are very very bad, may not have even happened if Ysa hadn't cursed him like that."

"Now you're just victim blaming," Wencen accused.

"V-Victim blaming?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "Since when is saying that people don't make choices in a vacuum and maybe other people contributed to Bloody Bones' actions victim blaming?"

"Since always."

"Ysa wasn't even a victim of his!" Fayne protested.

"I think he'd disagree."

"His girlfriend being abducted makes her a victim and not him," Fayne insisted.

"You are welcome to your opinion, incorrect though it is," Wencen said pleasantly. "Now I'm assuming that Hallam gave you what you needed to revive Sir Farrara and as such I'm not even going to ask to make sure."

Fayne glared at him before stomping off. "I bet if I weren't a mortal they'd take me more seriously."

She went to the cave (why did these tales always seem to take place in caves anyway) indicated and found Sir Farrara just standing around, possibly waiting for her. That was thoughtful of him. It would have been really annoying if she showed up and he was already dead. Now, while her first instinct would be to try and save Farrara from dying, the fact she had a magical bring-someone-back-from-the-dead potion meant it really wasn't necessary. Though she was quite curious if it would work on non-fae, she doubted she'd get a chance to find out.

"Hello, Sagrell!" Farrara greeted her. "How strange and unexpected to see a mortal but since your job is pretty much just to bring me back to life I'm sure we'll be fine. Assuming Hallam found a way to have you do it. But hey, that's his problem, not mine."

"It'll be your problem if he didn't."

But Farrara shook his head. "Not really because then I'd be dead and I'd have even less problems. Listen, instead of abducting one maid Bloody Bones decided to take an entire village. I do not approve of this telling change and I worry that my impending victory and then resurrection might not be so certain if we're going to go about changing things. Ah, and I thought this tale couldn't get any worse!"

"You don't like your tale?" Fayne asked, surprised.

"Of course not! It involves me dying every single time I tell it! And no matter how many times I go through this, it's still a bit of a leap of faith that I'll be brought back alright," Farrara said.

"If that's really how you feel then why did you go out for the part?"

"Anyone can have a ballad. We come up with new ones every now and then, as it happens, and they must all be retold now and again," Farrara explained. "But there are only seven great heroes. Sir Sagrell is one and Sir Farrara is another. As you can imagine, openings among the great heroes are rare so when one seat opens, you don't stop to consider if you like the telling you just take it. As a mortal, you were very fortunate with Sagrell's story."

Fayne could agree with that and the two of them set off to find Bloody Bones.

"Ah, so the witch was right! Help has come for Sir Farrara the Fair," Bloody Bones said mockingly.

"Witch? What witch?" Fayne asked, immediately on alert. "Is this the same maid that Ficon won't tell me more about when my predecessor died?"

Bloody Bones shrugged. "I'm sure I don't know. I wasn't there."

"Why so surprised that I'm here with Sir Farrara?" Fayne asked. "Isn't that a part of the telling?"

"It might be," Bloody Bones admitted. "But I'd still like to insult his sense of direction."

"Also, may I say that you are extremely well-muscled," Fayne complicated. "Are all fae like you?"

"They are not," Bloody Bones said, flexing his muscles.

"Is that what Ysa considered to be an abomination? Because if so, yeah, I'm not really seeing it," Fayne said. "And the no death thing doesn't really seem so bad given that you don't appear to be withering away into nothing from age like Echo. Since your people come back from the Great Cycle all the time anyway…yeah, this really doesn't seem so bad, actually. Though I'm sure Ysa meant to be quite an ass about it."

"It's not the no dying part that's annoying," Bloody Bones admitted. "Though I don't see why people can't just call me Famor."

"I'll call you Famor," Fayne told him. "The name 'the Bloody Bones', which isn't really a name at all really, is rather gross anyway."

The Bloody Bones smiled at her. "And I do thank you for that, Sagrell. What I really hate is the endless cycle of loneliness and defeat. All I want is love. Is that too much to ask?"

Fayne shook her head. "Not really, no, but we've got to talk about your ways of getting a girlfriend! I don't know what was considered romantic way back when all this started but abducting people is no way to get them to like you and if it appears that they are coming to like you it's a sign of a serious psychological condition brought on by the kidnapping."

"Well what do you suggest?" Bloody Bones asked. "Mortals are so short-lived and my own kind see me as nothing but a villain."

"I cannot believe you're giving dating advice to the Bloody Bones," Farrara muttered, shaking his head.

"I don't know. Maybe you could try dating a mortal just to get back into things and learn what is and is not appropriate behavior. Dating doesn't have to be forever. Chances are, you two will part ways long before she dies of old age. And that's not a bad thing! As a fae who can't die, the idea of forever should be kind of intimidating anyway. I do know that taking hostages doesn't help anybody."

"Well, I wasn't actually going to hurt them anyway," Bloody Bones admitted. "Tell you what, how about you just take them?"

"See, this is progress! The way I see it, though I'm sure this will be considered highly blasphemous, the telling can only start with your consent. No matter how much Sir Farrara might want to attack you and rescue the maid, he can only do that if you abduct one in the first place. If you just don't do that you can break free of your villainous role."

"Stop it, this isn't what we came here to do," Farrara hissed.

Bloody Bones sighed. "See, you make it sound so easy."

"It is literally the easiest thing. Just…don't kidnap people. It's that easy. Personally, I don't remember having ever kidnapped someone. Of course, I'm having memory problems so I could have kidnapped a ton of people but at any rate I've given it up now!" Fayne said brightly.

"I can't just 'give it up'," Bloody Bones said, sighing.

"Why not?"

"It's my fate," Bloody Bones said. "And since I'm the one and only original, I can't even retire from my role."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Oh, not this again! Look, if you don't want to do something then just don't do it."

"I asked you to leave before and forget Sir Farrara, to let me kill him in peace. Well I hate to tell you but no matter what you did I'd attack you anyway and try to claim you as my own," Bloody Bones admitted. "It's sad but true."

"And kind of entirely on you," Fayne said pointedly.

Bloody Bones didn't answer but merely started to attack.

Fayne ignored him as well as she could while he was attacking her to focus on his sprite companions so that Farrara could get himself properly killed. Once he was dead, she focused on Bloody Bones. After doing a weird sort of slow-mo color distortion thing and impaling him with a surprisingly solid sword that appeared to be made of light, she went over to revive Farrara.

"And…I'm back," Farrara announced, sitting up. "Nice job. I see that Hallam's trust in you is not misplaced."

"Hallam's trust?" Fayne repeated. "As far as I can tell there's no real 'trust' involved. I just won the competition is all."

"He could have refused to acknowledge you as the victor if he didn't think that you were good enough," Farrara told her, standing up.

Fayne stared at him in horror. "He can do that?"

"He can," Farrara confirmed. "But he didn't and that's all that mattered. I say…is that Bloody Bones?"

"Yes…"

Farrara walked over to him and knelt down beside him. "Is he…is he actually dead? Did you just kill Bloody Bones?"

"Oh, I really don't know."

"The one cursed by Ysa to never ever die? You somehow killed him?" Farrara couldn't believe it.

"If it makes you feel any better, it was pretty much an accident," Fayne admitted. "And I thought he couldn't be killed anyway."

"It was his fate to never be killed, yes," Farrara agreed. "Tell me what happened, exactly."

"Well…I was fighting him and things got weird and suddenly there was all this purple light and energy and then a glowy sword thing materialized in my hand and I ran him through with it and he died," Fayne summarized. "The end."

Farrara whistled. "That sounds an awful lot like you somehow beat him to death with his own fate."

"That sounds…kind of awesome, actually," Fayne said. "Did I really? And he did want to die anyway. Maybe. That's not really what he said but at least he's not lonely anymore?"

"His fate to never join the Great Cycle has been shattered," Farrara said solemnly. "I do wonder what will happen to him now. And, more to the point, what will happen to my telling?"

Fayne shrugged. "We can always find a new Bloody Bones. I'm sure the role won't be as popular as one of the hero roles but for someone who wants to make a name for themselves I can see them seeing this as a good opportunity."

"You really should see some sort of fate weaver about this," Farrara said seriously.

"I'll get right on that," Fayne lied.


	5. Chapter 5

Fayne returned to King Wencen uncertain of what to say.

"Well?" Wencen asked expectantly. "How did it go?"

"Well the good news is that Farrara died fighting Bloody Bones and I brought him back," she said.

"That sounds like there's bad news," Wencen said.

"What makes you think that?"

"If there wasn't you wouldn't have said 'the good news is', you would have just told me your news which happened to be good," Wencen pointed out.

"Maybe I just wanted to make sure you knew it was good before I told it to you," Fayne suggested.

"You're stalling," Wencen accused. "What happened?"

"I…might have accidentally killed Bloody Bones," Fayne admitted.

Wencen's jaw dropped. "What? How could you…he's unkillable! It is his curse! How could you possibly have killed him?"

Fayne shrugged uncomfortably. "Oh, I don't k now. Something about ripping his fate out and impaling him with it, according to Farrara."

"How would you even do a thing like that?" Wencen asked, flabbergasted. "And why?"

"I don't know! It was kind of an accident! And I'm not even sure that that's what happened. It was Farrara's theory and he was kind of dead at the time," Fayne said defensively. "So I was kind of hoping you'd tell me that Bloody Bones actually dying isn't a big deal because he always does that in the telling and then, because of the curse, he merely rises again and I didn't just accidentally mess things up."

"I wish I could tell you that but it would be an untruth," Wencen said. "Normally Sir Farrara and Sir Sagrell are forced to knock him out. If you killed him by breaking his fate I do wonder if he will even be able to return to the Great Cycle and be reborn of if you have killed him permanently like a mortal."

Fayne crossed his arms. "Well if he won't come back then it's kind of rich blaming me since I wasn't the one who made his fate to not return to the Great Cycle in the first place."

Wencen shook his head. "It does not matter. How would you like to create a telling of your very own?"

"Would the telling be in my name or in Sir Sagrell's?"

"You are Sir Sagrell," Wencen said blankly.

Fayne sighed. "Lovely. And would this need to be recreated over and over and over again over time like all the others?"

Wencen hesitated. "Ordinarily I would say 'yes' but things are changing so much and we simply do not understand why or how. Ideally yes it would but perhaps, due to the nature of this interference, if we were to set things right this tale would not be one capable of repeating itself. But we would remember it nonetheless!"

"What do you want me to do?"

"We have a librarian, Tenhwa. She is…an odd creature," Wencen said. His neutral phrasing was spoiled by the fact that he was making 'she's crazy' motions. Fayne hadn't yet met her but she was a little irked on her behalf. "I need you to recover the ballad of The Hero and the Maid from one of the Fae Cairns. This is very, very important."

Fayne didn't exactly know what a Fae Cairne was but figured she could find out from Tenhwa. "Seriously? The Hero and the Maid? All the ballads I've heard so far have involved some form of hero and a maid. What makes this one special that it needs to be given the most generic name ever?"

"This maid is the villain," Wencen explained. "The Maid of Windemere, in fact. And I am the hero. As king, I am in some ways the most important hero."

"Ah, so this is your ballad?" Fayne asked rhetorically. "Then shouldn't you know it? Why do you need it recovered?"

Wencen flushed dark blue. "I have been doing this role for a very long time. I know my part perfectly. But perhaps I do not have every single word of the original tale memorized. There was never any need. Hallam has suspicions and wants to see if there's some small detail we are missing."

"So you suspect that this mysterious witch maid that people keep talking about is the Maid of Windemere," Fayne realized. "Well, I don't know nearly everything about your tales but that does make sense to me. Where is Hallam, anyway? I wanted to talk to him."

"Oh, don't worry your mortal self about Hallam," Wencen said, rather condescendingly. "He's off trying to puzzle through this mess."

Fayne's eye twitched. "I'll worry about whoever I like, thanks, and I just said that I wanted to talk to him. But if he's not in then he's not in. Mortal or not, I do get that."

"I did not mean to offend you," Wencen said apologetically.

"I'm sure you didn't. But in the future, try and remember that referring to the fact that one day I'm going to die and probably won't come back from that death as some sort of disability that prevents me from understanding basic concepts is incredibly insulting!" Fayne exclaimed before turning to go.

She found Tenhwa easily enough though she was a little surprised by all the green glowing magic surrounding her.

"What's that?" she asked, making sure not to get too close to it.

"It's an imprisonment spell," Tenhwa explained calmly. "The Maid of Windemere cast in last night so I'm so glad you came around when you did! Normally I'd offer you some hospitality but, as you can see, I'm in a bit of a bind right now."

"The Maid of Windemere?" Fayne repeated. "You're sure it was her? You saw and recognized her and everything?"

"Yes, I can confirm that she was here as well as her accomplice Nix the Troll. She used the same spell she used in Two Knights and a Troll but since she took all my Cairns I simply cannot recall what the counterspell was," Tenhwa explained. "Creth and Airmer have been trying to get them back but, well, it's been a day with no results and while that may not seem like a very long time I have been stuck here the entire time. Perhaps you'll have better luck. Mortals can be so ingenious."

Fayne smiled at that, deciding that she liked this woman. "What is a Cairne?"

"Oh, my apologies, you wouldn't know, would you?" Tenhwa asked rhetorically. "You're so new to the House of Ballads and whatnot. And it's been very hectic since before you even arrived. As you may know, we fae are used to recording our stories with lorestones. The only problem is that they are often spread out over large distances and so finding them all and finding them in the correct order can be a little trying. Additionally, though it is not common, lorestones can be destroyed and thus important parts of our history are lost. Thus, Hallam and myself decided to create permanent receptacles for our stories and those are the Cairns. They can only be used with an Echostone but I happen to have one in the back room here."

Fayne nodded her head. "I wouldn't think of something like the lorestones as temporary but I suppose, as a fae, you'd have to look at the concept of permanence a little differently than I would. Can you tell me about the Maid of Windemere? And yes, I know that the actual ballad is gone but just the basics. I don't even know that."

"Well the basics are that the Maid was in love with King Wencen but he already had a queen. She could not abide by this and eventually kidnapped him and enchanted him to love her. Queen Belmaid snuck into the castle and removed the enchantment she was using to control wild fae surrounding the castle. Wencen knew that he needed to defeat her but that her magic was too powerful to be able to win in a straightforward manner. Therefore, he pretended to give in to her desire and when her guard was down he slew her," Tenhwa told her.

Fayne winced. "Ouch. Of course, if she was holding him captive and trying to force him to love her I'm not sure she didn't deserve it but what a way to go. Does she really think that just being evil is going to win him over? I'm pretty sure that's the last thing that would ever work."

Tenhwa shrugged. "I suppose the original Maid of Windemere did and now it's a pattern we will repeat until the end. Or until she somehow forces a change."

"What about Nix? Who is he?"

"Nix the Troll is the villain in Two Knights and a Troll and Creth and Airmer are actually the knights spoken of," Tenhwa replied. "It is about the dangers of trying to be something you're not."

Fayne groaned. "Oh, I am not going to like this, am I? It's going to have a nice little moral about how you should just stay in your place and not try to do things that people say you can't."

"Well when people say you can't do things it's usually because you can't. And if Fate says you can't then it's a certainty so why invite tragedy by trying when you're only going to fail?" Tenhwa asked.

"I don't believe in Fate," Fayne said, crossing her arms.

"You don't have to. Fate controlling your actions isn't conditional upon believing that this is true," Tenhwa said. "Nix wanted desperately to be human. One day, the Maid of Windemere decided to play a joke on Nix. She cast on enchantment on him so that he would think he was human and then, overjoyed, Nix went to go settle in the nearest human settlement. When Creth and Airmer arrived, they treated him like a human and challenged him to a gentleman's duel where they slew him in fair combat."

Fayne was gazing at Tenhwa with growing horror.

"What?" Tenhwa asked, confused. "I know that I don't have the ballad in front of me for consultation but I didn't tell it that badly and you would not know the difference if I did."

"Look, I know this is just the abridged version but there is a lot missing from here," Fayne said. "And it kind of makes your knights look less like heroes and more like assholes."

"How so?" Tenhwa asked. "They eliminated a dangerous troll."

"Even trolls shouldn't be killed just for existing!" Fayne burst out. "I mean, I kill trolls all the time but only when they're attacking me. And if Nix thought he was human he clearly wasn't attacking anyone. So what if he wanted to live as a human? If the villagers wanted him dead for that I don't think very much of them."

"He tried to live as a human but he simply wasn't human. It wasn't a case of prejudice but of practicality," Tenhwa insisted. "He tried to settle in but he was too big. He kept crushing everything and with the enchantment he didn't even notice."

"So why not explain it to him or dispel the enchantment or something?" Fayne asked. "He wasn't trying to live as a human before he thought he was one. He seems like a pretty clear victim of at least the Maid of Windemere and probably Creth and Airmer, too."

"And yet he chose to side with her, back when the tales were being developed," Tenhwa pointed out.

"Assuming he had a choice, Fate being what it was," Fayne said sarcastically.

"It is…difficult to explain the difference between choice and destiny," Tenhwa admitted. "Fate is something like 'the Maid will never win Wencen's love.' Her choice is to keep concocting these absurd plans to try and do so. Admittedly, the House of Ballads would prefer that the Maid did not as it would ruin some of our finest ballads but she chooses to play the role as anyone. If she is fated to be killed by Wencen then she is fated to be killed by Wencen, though whoever kills her would be Wencen by default, but the circumstances of her death are in her hands and death is no terrible thing to a fae. Nix didn't have to help her after she put him in the position of thinking he was human but I suppose he blames the knights instead."

"I wonder, do trolls like Nix come back to life or audition for roles as well?" Fayne said. "Because I can't really see that."

Tenhwa shook her head. "No, trolls are fae so they return."

"Really?" Fayne asked, surprised. "I tended to think of fae as just people like you, the summer and winter fae."

"It's a common misconception but every animal you encounter that has magic is a fae," Tenhwa corrected her. "That is how he was able to side with the Maiden after his death."

"I suppose that if they knew Nix would return it's less terrible that they killed him than if they killed a mortal troll that would not," Fayne conceded. "But all the same, if they were truly treating him as human – as the ballad lauds them for – they wouldn't have challenged him in the first place. Humans don't just challenge other humans to duels for living somewhere. And killing him instead of trying to solve the problem another way is just lazy."

"It broke the enchantment, didn't it?" Tenhwa asked rhetorically. "And at any rate, all of this was so very long ago."

Fayne nodded. "You guys are just going through the motions, I get it. I do feel sorry for him, though. Not really her because she really should just give up on Wencen already but what a terrible thing it must be not to be happy in your own skin."

\----

Fayne found two fae sitting inside of a cave.

"Are you two Creth and Airmer?" she asked. "I can see why you haven't solved the problem if you two are just going to be literally sitting around."

"Well it's not like standing around would be any more productive and we have no more ideas than that at this point," one of them grouched.

"Ah, he gets like that," the other said. "I am Sir Airmer. I suppose you must be Sir Sagrell since you certainly fit Hallam's depiction."

"And was Hallam's description any more detailed than 'mortal'?" Fayne asked sweetly.

"He also mentioned that you were female," Airmer replied. "The Maid was here earlier but she left."

"So you just gave up?" Fayne asked.

Airmer shook his head. "Oh, not us! We're looking for the Cairns. She left Nix the Troll here to deal with us. If you'd like to join our little hunting party, feel free."

"That depends," Fayne said. "If I join you will you actually at least pretend to still be looking?"

"That does sound reasonable," Airmer agreed. He and Creth took off.

"I guess we're going this way then," Fayne murmured.

They eventually ran into Nix himself who, despite trying to pass himself off as a human every now and again, couldn't be bothered to actually speak to them.

"There, we have all the Cairn," Airmer said, satisfied. "I wish that I knew what he was doing here of all places, though."

"Other than trying to stop us from stopping the Maid?" Creth asked.

"It's not a part of his ballad, though. It's all so very weird. It's almost like things are happening differently than they have every other cycle," Airmer complained.

"That does seem to be the general idea," Fayne agreed. "It's been happening to everyone. Even you two aren't reenacting a ballad right now."

"I can only hope Hallam will be able to explain it," Airmer said worriedly.

"I kind of already did."

"We will meet you back at the House of Ballads," Airmer informed her.

"So…what? I helped you get the Cairn so you're not even going to keep trying to fix this?" Fayne couldn't believe it.

"Goodbye," Airmer said before he and Creth sped away.

Fayne rolled her eyes and headed back to Tenhwa. Some help they turned out to be.

"I'm back," Fayne announced unnecessarily.

"Excellent," Tenhwa said brightly. "But you've returned without the most important Cairn of all."

"I'm assuming you mean The Hero and the Maid," Fayne said. "But how could you possibly know that?"

"I just do," Tenhwa replied. "Unfortunately, the Cairns are warded so they will not reveal their secrets."

"Why?" Fayne asked.

Tenhwa frowned, puzzled. "What do you mean 'why'?"

"Just that. Why are the Cairns warded? The whole point of them is to record the ballads. The ballads can't possibly be a secret because the House of Ballads always reenacts them and just loves to tell anyone who wanders by all about them," Fayne pointed out. "So why make the Cairns so difficult to use? It's not like, this Maid of Windemere strangeness aside, people are really able to change the ballads if they know them or not."

"That's a good question," Tenhwa admitted. "I never really stopped to think about it. It just seemed so natural to ward them. I suppose, because of how convenient it would be to have a Cairn instead of a lorestone, the wards are to stop people from stealing them and keeping them for their own personal use."

"I guess I can see that," Fayne admitted.

"Good. Now I need you to go find the words that will free me from this spell by listening to the Cairn using the Echostone in the next room," Tenhwa instructed.

She activated the Echostone just the same way she would try to activate a Lorestone but she wasn't entirely sure why there was a short introduction before she even selected which Cairn she wanted to hear. It might be nice the first few times but ultimately if the Echostone were used a lot that would get really annoying.

"The story of two valiant souls I bring. Of the lords named Airmer and Creth, I sing. Two hearts united against common foes, the thoughts of one in mind, the other knows. Lord Creth, of Knights most stoic and grave, Lord Airmer's hand and shadow, the Brave. And gentle Airmer, his equal in might, dawn to Creth's desk, day to his night. Here is the tale of how they stopped a Troll: the Maid of Windemere corrupted its soul."

Fayne waited patiently but apparently that was it. Really? That was how much was on a Cairn? And there needed to be five Cairns for this? How useful could the Cairns possibly be if they could only record a short paragraph anyway? The fae weren't really much for practicality, were they?

She put on the next one.

"The Troll named Nix had a most troubled heart. In nature was it displeased with its part. It hated its difference from the norm and wished to shed its current form. In grief, it went to the Maid of Windemere. She motioned to Nix, and beckoned him near. 'It is your wish to be human, I see,' she whispered to the Troll, in glee. 'I shall grant your wish and make you so. You are a human now,' she cackled. 'Go.' And so the troll named Nix, to town it came. Never suspecting it was still the same. It crushed the road and split the wall. And Creth and Airmer were sure to fall: They faced the troll and fought to no avail. The wise knights knew what was wrong in our tale. 'The treacherous Maid of Windemere at play. We know, in part, what is wrong with this Fae.' And so, Lord Airmer shouted to Lord Creth, 'Challenge this troll to a duel to the death.' The troll, still under the wicked Maid's spell, and was human, it thought, and all was well, rampaged throughout the countryside in joy, treating all as toys. Lord Airmer slowly approached him and said, 'If you are human, deal as such instead. Face us, if that is your fate. Duel us and reveal the truth of your state.' Then the troll and Fae did battle and fought: alas, it was not as the troll had thought. After he had won, Lord Creth said to Nix, with a mind to ease and a will to fix, 'You are a troll, and that is good, my friend. You have no faults, no wrong to mend. But if it be your wish to join their kind, a better way you must find. There is naught wrong with following your will as long as it does not bring others ill.' Again, the heroes of honor stayed true: the story of a Troll and the Knights two."

Fayne just stood there for a moment, taking it all in. "What the-what was that? Was I listening to the right story? Tenhwa said that she was trapped by a spell from this ballad. I didn't hear any immobilization spell here! It certainly would have helped them stop Nix. The only spell that might have been cast would have been cast by the Maid of Windemere to make Nix think that he was human but I'm not convinced, based on what I heard, that she did anything more than pretend to cast a spell and tell him he was human. And there's certainly no counter-spell mentioned!"

She sighed and started pacing around the room. "And in addition to this, that was a really really badly told story. I'm sure I could write one better. And they seem to be leaving out all sorts of details. And I'm sure Creth appreciated Airmer making him challenge Nix. For instance, Creth and Airmer working together were unable to stop Nix so a one-on-one duel could kill him? What, did they make him using a fencing foil or something? And how does it work that for Nix to prove himself human he has to fight a fae in a duel to the death? If he actually was human there was no way he'd survive that! And why was the town so feeble that Nix couldn't even walk on the roads without cracking it? I could see him breaking homes or furniture but the roads itself? I think that one's on the town. Trolls don't crack the ground so they shouldn't crack the roads. Maybe they could have tried to reason with it? I don't recall any mention of trying to reason with Nix."

Fayne stopped pacing and stood abruptly in front of the Echostone again. "And they completely changed the ending! Creth is all 'it's cool if you want to be a human but you're not right now. Follow your heart as long as you aren't hurting anyone.' That doesn't sound like the Creth I met and no mention is made of murdering Nix here. At least they mention that he was wrecking havoc though I'm still kind of judging them for being bad people. Why the huge discrepancy between the story and the reenactment? I don't think we can infer from the challenged duel to the death that Nix dies at the end and clearly, given the impermanence of death among fae and the fact that the House of Ballads keeps reenacting this tale, the fact Nix dies isn't meant to be a secret. It's one thing to get a few details wrong from not having the ballad memorized, though if they're all this short there is really no excuse not to have your own ballad or ballads memorized. But did they just get the ending wrong altogether? Is Nix not supposed to constantly be killed by Airmer and Creth but these incarnations just didn't do their homework? Is that why Nix sided with the Maid of Windemere? And how, exactly, does she think setting a troll who thinks he's human on a town is going to win her Wencen's love? Maybe she's just a terrible person in general. Maybe I shouldn't listen to anymore of the actual ballads."

She went back to Tenhwa.

"What is it?" Tenhwa asked. "Did you discover the words to the counter spell?"

"No," Fayne said.

"Then why are you here?"

"There are no words to a counterspell. This story doesn't make any sense. I don't know what you want me to do," Fayne said.

"Well I can't help you from here," Tenhwa pointed out. "Go back and listen again until you've got it."

Fayne disappeared into the back room again for twenty minutes before coming back with a piece of paper in her hands.

"Have you discovered it now?"

Fayne shook her head. "I did copy down the entire story onto this piece of paper, though. I'll read it to you and if this is really so easy maybe you can figure it out."

After Fayne had finished reading, Tenhwa said, "You're human now, go." With that, the barrier flickered and disappeared and Tenhwa was free to step away from the spot she'd been imprisoned on.

"How did you even know that?" Fayne asked, astonished.

"It was the only bit of magic used so it must be a counterspell," Tenhwa said simply.

"But…but it was never identified as a counterspell and did she even use magic and no one was imprisoned and how do you know it was a counterspell to a curse that trapped you and I don't get any of this," Fayne complained.

"Well, you're not actually a fae and you're not a librarian," Tenhwa pointed out. "Perhaps that might explain why you can't see it."

"For the record, this is the only 'because you're a mortal' explanation I'm willing to accept," Fayne declared.

"I suppose I could have told you all this sooner but I wanted to be freed and, not knowing your character, I figured holding out on you would be the best way to guarantee that you'd help me," Tenhwa said. "Since the Maid of Windemere has our most important tale and can somehow change the telling, I worry that she will do just that and make herself finally win."

"But why would she even need the original story?" Fayne asked. "Or the five-part epic that's really not all that long? Wouldn't it be easier to change things if she just ignores what is written and does her own thing?"

"I do not know. Perhaps she took the tale not so she could use it but so that we could not," Tenhwa suggested. "And you will have to remember that the first time the tale unfolded it was entirely her own initiative so perhaps she wants to check it and make sure following her instincts do not merely lead to her repeating past mistakes. Go find Hallam and tell him that we have failed."

"I don't really feel like I failed in any real way," Fayne objected. "Except, perhaps, failing to understand how random words from a story was an imprisonment counterspell but I still got you out eventually. But I will go."

\----

When Fayne arrived back at the house of Ballads, she went to go see Wencen first even though the person she was told to find was Hallam. It was no matter, though, as he wasn't standing where he had been standing earlier so there was really no possible way to locate him.

Instead, the projection of a fae woman was there being ignored by everyone else in the room.

"There's no point in looking for your beloved Wencen and his foolish Court of Enchantments," she said gleefully. "They are mine now as you will soon be."

"Excuse me?" Fayne asked. " 'My beloved'? I met the guy once. He seemed okay, I guess, but I was a little annoyed that I even had to detour to see him in the first place. And he wasn't very helpful. And he had a really unoriginal ballad name. And if I'm never going to find them why bother warning me?"

"Maybe I'm just being polite," the fae said. Fayne figured she was probably the Maid of Windemere. "I wouldn't want you to waste your last moments of freedom of a futile quest, after all."

"I also highly resent your implication that you're going to enslave me. There's nothing I hate more than a lack of free will. There's a good chance I'm going to kill you for that," Fayne warned. "But you're a fae so you'll get over it."

"Oh, what an amusing little mortal!" the Maid said condescendingly before vanishing.

"I really hate her," Fayne announced to the world at large. She bumped into Hallam right outside the room she had been in. "Oh, hi. What's this about all of the members of the Court of Enchantment except myself being kidnapped?"

"That's pretty much the long and short of it," Hallam said, shrugging. "I wasn't here, either. It's kind of faltering that she would need me to be absent before daring to steal everyone away. This is almost like the start of her ballad except she usually gives us notice and only takes Wencen."

"What a polite villain, to let you know she will be abducting your king!" Fayne exclaimed.

Another shrug. "She has some odd ways. Listen, we could just go charging in and try to kill her but she has some weird magic and so that might not work. It would be a big waste of time if we were to charge in there, have it not work, then go find out more about the magic so we could go back and kill her so let's just nix that first killing attempt and go find out more about her."

"Are you sure? Because I have it on somewhat sketchy haven't actually bothered to get it confirmed yet authority that I can change things, too. I'll probably be fine," Fayne said.

"I am indeed. Go find Father Etair and ask him what's going on. He's very wise and magical and helped us with the Carin," Hallam ordered.

"But why would he know what's going on?" Fayne asked.

"Because we haven't got anybody better to ask," Hallam said. "If this doesn't pan out, I promise you can go confront her on your own."

"Well, what's one more diversion?" Fayne asked rhetorically. Hallam pointed to where she was to go on her map and off she headed.

Just outside the village, she ran into a man sitting on the ground.

"Hello, I hope you are well," the man greeted. "I am Brother Holt. Will you do me a favor?"

Fayne stared at him. "Seriously? I literally just met you. Most people at least put on some sort of pretence of getting me to offer to help first."

"I figure that just wastes time," Holt said. "I had a friend, Brother Padric, and he decided to go off adventuring. I haven't heard from him in a year so I think he might be dead. Can you check it out?"

"How?" Fayne asked blankly. "Do you know where he was going? Maybe he's been dead for a year and his body wouldn't be there. Maybe he survived, or died later, and moved on? How would I know if I had found a body that it was his?"

"I will pay you to think of your own answer to these questions," Holt said. "I do know where he was going to be headed, though. Splitrock depths. Maybe he's dead there or for some reason left behind a signed letter explaining exactly where he was going."

"I find it unlikely but I might find myself up there eventually. I'll see if I stumble across anything," Fayne offered. "That's literally all I will promise."

"Well it's better than anyone else is doing," Holt reasoned. "Thank you, stranger!"


	6. Chapter 6

There were a few people out and about in the village and Fayne decided to bother the one that was actually working in a garden instead of standing around doing nothing because he seemed to be more responsible.

"Hello," the man greeted her. "You must be looking to meet with Father Etair."

Fayne drew back, surprised. "I…yes, actually. But how could you possibly know that?"

"We have a pretty simple village but we're almost constantly receiving all manner of strange visitors and they're all here to see him," the man explained. "I hope I'm not being rude by guessing that you're probably one of them."

"That does make sense," Fayne conceded. "Who are you? And where can I find Father Etair?"

"My name is Aedwin and I'm a brother here," Aedwin said. "Father Etair lives on the second floor of that bunkhouse over there." He pointed to it.

"I'll go see him then," Fayne said. "Thanks for your help."

It was a good thing she'd bothered asking for directions and hadn't had to go through literally every building there looking for the right one and having to ask each occupant if they were Etair. When she got to the second floor of the bunkhouse, she strolled in and stopped dead at the sight of a very clearly murdered person on the floor.

"Oh, this is not fair," she complained. "And…I guess probably sucks for him, too, but at least he won't have to deal with the fallout from this. I wonder if this is just a really annoying coincidence or the Maid of Windemere actually being competent and tying up loose ends."

She headed back outside and approached Aedwin again.

"Hello," Aedwin said pleasantly. "That was fast. Most people don't take literally five minutes to see Father Etair if they've trekked all the way here from…wherever it is you've come from. Were you just delivering a package or looking for a signature or something quick like that?"

Fayne winced. "Ah, not exactly…"

"What do you mean?"

"So I went in there like you said but…um…Father Etair's kind of dead," Fayne said all in a rush.

"Kind of dead?" Aedwin repeated. "How can he only be 'kind of' dead? Is he unconscious or something?"

"No, he's fully and entirely dead," Fayne amended.

"I see. I suppose the obvious thing to do is to ask if you had anything to do with it," Aedwin said.

"Me?" Fayne asked, offended. "How could I have possibly done it? I was up there for like two minutes!"

"How long could it possibly take to kill him?" Aedwin challenged. "He was like eighty."

"That…is true. But why would I report the murder to you then?" Fayne asked.

Aedwin shrugged. "Because you think we're too stupid to figure out you'd killed him. Because you don't think we can hold you responsible for your actions. Because you want to brag. Because you really hadn't thought this part through. Because-"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Fayne interrupted. "But seriously, I didn't kill him."

"Well if you didn't do it, and I'm still not convinced that's the case, then it was probably the last man we knew who saw him alive," Aedwin said reasonably. "They were heard violently quarreling just a few hours ago and then Brother Wulf – that's his apprentice – hurried out looking almost panicked. We know how Father Etair gets after these kinds of things so we thought it best to leave him alone to find his equilibrium again."

"Yeah, I'd probably suspect him, too," Fayne agreed. "And not just because I'm the only other suspect."

"They used to be best buddies but now they're not," Aedwin continued. "Ever since they repaired the village well. Kind of a weird thing to tear two people apart, come to think of it."

"And you didn't try to investigate?" Fayne asked.

Aedwin laughed. "Investigate? Are you kidding? If something did happen none of us want to know about it or to risk our lives in such a way! But if you'd like to then by all means. If you see Brother Wulf, try to arrest him or kill him in self-defense for us, will you? And feel free to search the bunkhouse."

"Why would I search the bunkhouse?" Fayne asked. "I already found the body and took everything that I was allowed to take without looting."

"How very thoughtful," Aedwin said sarcastically. "You might be able to find information about whatever it is you seek. What is it that you seek?"

Fayne shrugged. "I don't know. Honestly if I feel like I'm wasting time with these even without the murder. I don't really care to go through this things and find information. If Wulf can't tell me anything then clearly it's not something I need to know. I'm going to the well. I'm glad you're open to the idea of me killing Wulf in self-defense because if I see him that's probably what's going to happen."

Aedwin blinked. "Well, none of us are going to jump to defend someone who just killed our leader. And he never was very good at prayer. And how can you not be good at praying? But it's just…if you're planning on killing someone in self-defense then doesn't that sort of take away from-"

"Sorry, got to go, bye," Fayne said hurriedly. She went off to the well and found a crystal. She wasn't sure what it did but it was glowing and might be important so she would keep an eye out for others like it. She hoped she wasn't supposed to destroy the crystals because, having not bothered to do any research, she wouldn't be aware if that were the case.

She was attacked by some non-human-esque fae though she really had no idea why they would be in a well and that really didn't sound like a very hygienic thing to have in one's water supply. No wonder the well was broken or whatever. How had Etair and Wulf managed to deal with that when they came down to fix it? Or perhaps they had only arrived afterwards when Wulf went evil or something.

She still felt entirely justified in her decision not to try and find out more before doing this.

She came across a man sleeping on one of the mini-islands and rather hoped she had found this mysterious Brother Wulf.

"What? Who are you?" he demanded when she poked him with her foot to rouse him.

"My name is Fayne," Fayne said. "Though I guess that doesn't really answer your question. Are you Wulf?"

"Yes," Wulf said, climbing inelegantly to his feet. There was a strange green glow about his head which meant he was under some sort of spell. "Are you here to destroy the crystals? I'll kill you first!"

"I…don't know," Fayne admitted. "I didn't check. I have them all here with me. What's going on? What's with the crystals? And why did you assume I was here to destroy them?"

"Well Father Etair and I found them the other day and then this strange maid-"

"Now you're referring to her as a maid?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "Why can't you just say 'strange woman' like everyone else? Is she just always going to be referred to like that by everyone no matter how bizarre that is?"

Wulf shrugged. "She just looked like a maid. She appeared out of nowhere and wanted the crystals but Father Etair was hiding them behind his back so she couldn't get them. He dropped the crystals down the well and they told me to kill him so I did."

"Wait, wait, wait. Back up," Fayne instructed. "Some crystals spoke to you and told you that you should kill Etair?"

Wulf nodded. "That is what happened."

"And you listened?"

Wulf had the grace to look a little embarrassed. "They're very persuasive. And they demand to not be destroyed. So now I have to kill anybody who wants to kill them. What's so strange about that?"

"If I were going to destroy the crystals, how would I go about doing that?" Fayne asked. "Speaking completely hypothetically, of course."

"You'd have to take this here prismere whistle," Wulf said, holding up a red whistle, "and blow into it. That would allow you, for perhaps half a minute, to see the crystals and destroy them."

"Thanks. Now, you are clearly under some sort of spell and if I had any sort of skill in dispellment maybe I could save you."

"I think the word is 'dispelling'," Wulf corrected.

Fayne narrowed her eyes. "I like dispellment. So I wish I could save you. But I kind of was focusing on alchemy so that every time I go near a plant it stop withering away into nothing because it was kind of getting frustrating and not making much sense. And I wanted to be more persuasive but there's really no arguing with a person enchanted. So I'm just going to have to kill you, aren't I?"

Wulf nodded. "Probably."

"Sorry about this then. And no, I'm not willing to concede that this isn't self-defense," Fayne said before she summoned lightning and struck him dead. Then she took the whistle and anything else he had on him and went off to destroy the crystals. The melody she had to play each time was rather annoying but it was an annoyance she had to live with.

The cave and the crystals dealt with, she returned to the House of Ballads and hoped that Hallam would have a better idea of what was going on than she did.

"Did you find Father Etair?" Hallam asked her urgently. "Did he tell you anything useful? What magic is the Maid working with?"

Fayne opened her mouth to tell him that she had found him but he had been murdered and it was probably all the Maid of Windemere's doing but to her surprise instead asked, "How do you know him anyway?"

"Oh, he used to come out to watch some of our ballads," Hallam told her. "A dangerous pastime for a mortal but he was hardy enough. He pointed out that while we may repeat our ballads time and time again, if no one is there to witness them people would just have to take our word for it. And while fae are inherently trustworthy about these things, I can see where mortals would not be and would have difficulty understanding the lack of proof so I permitted him to stay. He's quite brilliant and it's been a good forty years knowing him."

"Have you ever noticed how often you give off the impression that Wencen's just a figurehead and you're the one running the show?" Fayne asked.

"I had not."

Fayne had a bit better of an idea of why she hadn't been able to tell Hallam about Etair when she stepped back and a glowing Maid of Windemere appeared before her, probably still not actually there.

"I should have known that Hallam the White and his little pet would uncover my schemes!" she hissed.

"Actually, us finding out about you killing Etair and those mysterious crystals – which I haven't gotten around to telling him about yet – is a complete coincidence," Fayne said. "He was really just fishing sending me to him."

"Or Fate."

"Or not," Fayne said sourly.

"Wencen is with me and I'm not giving him back ever. If this should displease you, feel free to send a mighty warrior to come…discuss the matter," the Maid said provocatively. "You're pretty much the only one available so I warn you now that you can't really delegate. And you should definitely know that I fully intend to bewitch you when you come."

"But why bother with that?" Fayne asked. "Not that I don't appreciate your honesty because I really do. Why not just swoop in and take me like you took everybody else? I get that I was out at the time but surely that wasn't a one-time bewitch everybody that was around and can never be used again sort of thing."

"It wasn't," the Maid confirmed. "But while I needed to quickly and efficiently get most of the house, you and Hallam – and he doesn't really count anyway for reasons – are the only members of the House of Ballads untouched so I can afford to just wait until you come to rescue everyone. It saves me a trip, actually. Plus this way should be more exciting. I don't want my victory to be too easy."

With that, she vanished.

"This is not just about the court anymore," Hallam told her seriously. "You have roused the Maid's interest and she wishes to add you to her collection."

"And how is that any different than her wanting to collect me so she can get a full set of House of Ballad court members?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

"She…might be even harder to beat?" Hallam guessed. "Anyway, we must hurry but be cautious. And by 'we' I mean you. This ballad is a tricky one."

"Not for me. I'm not the one who has to convince the Maid over and over that I'm going to not stab her in the heart this time but love her so that I can get her to drop her guard and stab her in the heart," Fayne said. "Seriously, how stupid does she have to be to keep falling for that? I mean, I'm not too certain of Nix's intellect to keep thinking he's human but at least there might be a spell there!"

"I'm going to give you another resurrection potion just in case but other than that there's nothing really you can do to prepare yourself for this journey," Hallam said. "I'm sure your dispellment is up to snuff so you won't have to kill everybody she's enchanted."

"So why not give me one than one?" Fayne asked loudly. "That way I could help a lot of dead people."

"Don't be greedy," Hallam admonished. "Usually this tale is completed without the aid of any but since you're a mortal and Sir Sagrell isn't even supposed to be here anyway and this is all spiraling wildly out of control I'll give you this. Not that you'll be able to use it on yourself since if you need it you'll be too dead to use it. And…I don't actually know if it would work on a mortal or the long-term effects of such use if it does work."

"So…don't you want to know about Father Etair?" Fayne asked. "You wanted to know earlier."

Hallam blinked. "Oh, right. Him. So did he know anything?"

"No idea. His idiot apprentice was possessed by crystals or something and killed him," Fayne explained.

"Ah, those would be prismere crystals," Hallam realized. "They are dark blue normally but when infused with magic become red. They're very powerful, very dangerous. Very rare, too, but clearly some were found. The Tuatha Deohn use them almost exclusively for their weapons and armor."

"Don't you care that Etair is dead?" Fayne asked.

"Of course I do! But he is mortal and I am long-lived and, while the manner of his death is tragic, I always expected him to die and I am used to my mortal friends and acquaintances passing on," Hallam explained.

"So how do I get to the Maid of Windemere's castle anyway?"

"One can always find what they desire if the desire is strong enough," Hallam replied cryptically.

"Yeah. Like when they desire it so much that they ask for directions," Fayne hinted.

Hallam sighed. "Go north."

\----

Fayne was getting close when the Maid of Windemere appeared before her again. "You have come. Excellent. That is far wiser than the fools of the House of Ballad."

"So…not that I'm trying to reject a compliment or anything but…they were abducted and I willingly chose to walk into an obvious trap and I'm wiser than them?"

"Sadly, yes," the Maid of Windemere confirmed, nodding. "I know I invited you in and everything but I'm kind of changeable so I demand that you go through all manner of ridiculous tests so you can get to the point where I can defeat you. But only a true knight may come in and a true knight needs her armor."

Fayne looked down at the armor she was wearing. "And…what do you think I've got on? Because if the answer is 'not armor' then you're wrong."

"I demand special House of Ballads armor from my challenger!"

"See, on the one hand I'm annoyed that you're making these stupid demands but on the other…I'm a member of the House of Ballads! Why don't I have special House of Ballads armor?" Fayne demanded. "I want it."

The Maid of Windemere clapped her hands together. "Excellent." With that she disappeared.

"Well now what?" Fayne asked. She shrugged and kept going. Eventually, she found two fae just lounging around. They stood when they saw her. "Is that all you people do? Just sit around?"

"Hello, Sagrell," Airmer greeted her pleasantly. "I see our lady was right that Hallam the White would send his champion. Creth and I are competing for the right to be our lady's own champion. I'm obviously better suited for it but Creth wouldn't be Creth if he didn't fight me on it. Would you help us decide?"

"Would you let me of all people choose for you?" Fayne couldn't believe it.

"Well, no, whoever isn't picked would probably attack you but two on one is good odds for whichever one you're fighting with so you'd decide by default," Airmer explained. "Unless you're getting greedy and want to be both Hallam and my lady's champion."

Fayne laughed. "Yeah, not even. She's just being weird and wants me to have armor. And since you quit the House of Ballads or whatever, how about giving me yours?"

"The only way you're getting my armor is if you defeat me in a duel to the death," Airmer declared boldly.

Fayne considered. "Well, you're clearly not in your right mind. Your words would give that away even if the glowing light around your head didn't. But…since you insist…I'm going to kill you."

Creth just watched disinterestedly as she killed his friend and ended up probably beating him to death with his own fate and then took and put on his armor. She might have moved or asked him to turn around but he just seemed extremely not interested. It was kind of creepy just how apathetic he looked, actually.

Since he didn't appear interested in killing her, she just sort of left and continued on her journey. At one point, as she was crossing a bridge, the Maid of Windemere appeared before her once more.

"And yet another head you lay before me!" she exclaimed, delighted. "I approve."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "I'm not laying any heads before you by killing off your possessed-"

"Enchanted," the Maid interrupted. "You keep saying possessed and it's not the same thing at all. If they were possessed there would be some sort of entity controlling their body. They still control their bodies, I've just distorted their minds enough that they believe they want to follow me."

"Whatever," Fayne said indifferently. "Just because I'm killing off the people you are enchanting doesn't mean I'm doing it for you or it's even really about you at all. Stop being creepy."

"I created a cult of personality and regularly abduct a king to be my love slave," the Maid pointed out. "What about that screams 'not creepy' to you?"

"That's a good point," Fayne admitted.

"Your persistence rivals even Sir Elswin-"

"I'm sorry, who?" Fayne interrupted.

The Maid sighed. "He was the captain of my Windemere guard but Airmer and Creth killed him so that they could become my new champion. I mourn him in my own way."

"Could that be any more dismissive of him and his death?" Fayne demanded.

"Probably if I put some actual effort into it," the Maid replied. "He was enchanted too, you see. And he is going to stay nice and dead so that nobody can reach me."

"How are you going to manage that?" Fayne asked. "Fae don't come back because they're given permission…do they?"

"Well, no," the Maid conceded. "But I don't have to let him back into my tale."

"How does keeping him dead mean that you can't be reached anyway?" Fayne asked. "And why would you even want that if you want me to come to you?"

"With Sir Elswin dead you may have passed the Wall of Thorns but you'll never get past the Weeping Gorge!" the Maid declared triumphantly.

"…Did you seriously name the various geographical landmarks here?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "Why?"

The Maid narrowed her eyes, annoyed. "Did you seriously not even bother to do any research at all before you came here? How can you not know any of this?"

"I seriously did not even do any research, not even asking the librarian or Hallam some basic questions," Fayne confirmed.

"Why not?" the Maid asked petulantly.

"Because it all sounded really boring and I had places to be," Fayne replied. "I'm sure I'll figure it out."

"Well good luck with that. This bridge needs Sir Elswin defeated to cross and he's already dead so there," the Maid taunted.

"Setting aside what a lousy security system that is and how you must have knowingly picked someone inadequate if every time you want to come and go – except maybe you if you can teleport – someone needs to defeat Sir Elswin…No, actually, let me ruminate on that for a moment. If he needed to reach you does he need to go find someone else to kick his ass? This is so stupid," Fayne complained.

The Maid crossed her arms. "It's cool," she huffed.

"But setting all that aside, what's stopping me from just repelling down the side of this part and climbing up the other side?" Fayne asked pointedly.

The Maid frowned. "Technically nothing, I guess, if you're not interrupted by hostile fae and fall to your death but that sounds like a lot of effort. If Sir Elswin weren't dead this would be a lot easier for you."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "And now you care about making it easier for me!"

The Maid didn't answer but simply vanished leaving Fayne to search for the dead once-champion.

She found him and kneeled beside him. "This always makes me feel so skeevy. And I hate that I've done this more than once so I can say 'always'," she complained and she poured the liquid into his mouth.

He immediately came to and started thrashing around. "Where is-oh, damn. Dead again. Oh, well. Better luck next time."

Fayne pulled herself to her feet and after a moment Elswin did the same.

"Why, hello mortal," Sir Elswin said. "Were you the one who revived me? I'm much obliged."

Fayne winced. "Yeah, about that…"

Elswin narrowed his eyes. "I get the feeling that I'm not going to like this."

"Probably not," Fayne admitted, scratching the back of her head. "It's just…I've got to kill you again."

"There is no way in hell."

"I'm sorry but I need to get up there," Fayne pointed, "and it has been pointed out to me that killing you would be much easier than climbing up."

"And what about me and my needs?" Elswin demanded. "Do you have any idea what constantly being killed does to a person? Even my fellow fae are starting to talk and some of them commit suicide to escape an argument!"

"Well I'm very sorry about this," Fayne told him.

"Not sorry enough not to be lazy," Elswin complained before attacking her.

Fayne brightened. "Yes, self-defense once again!"

"You really need to readjust your definition of self-defense," Elswin managed to tell her before she killed him.

Since he was dead at that point, there was little point in answering so Fayne just returned to where she had been and crossed the bridge now that Elswin was dead again.

When she was crossing the bridge, the Maid appeared once more.

"Oh, come on!" Fayne complained. "Why can't you leave me alone? I'm coming as fast as I possibly can and you keep slowing me down."

"I'm just here to chat," the Maid said casually. "Also I think you might actually win so…want to be my king?"

"You mean queen?"

The maid shook her head. "No, I would be queen and you would be Wencen."

"Oh, wow," Fayne said, backing up. "You know I'm not even male or a fae? Honestly, you need to get over your weird obsession with him especially if you're just going to be obsessed with ending up with someone who is willing to pretend to be him."

"Pretend to be-" the Maid broke off, disgusted. "This from Sir Sagrell?"

"All I know is I'm never going to join you and please go away so I can make my way to you," Fayne requested.

The Maid vanished and Fayne continued forth. There were various fae creatures she attempted to avoid but none of them, strangely, seemed to notice her. Her eyes lit up when she saw a troll.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, charging right at it. "Now I can kill it and…wait, what? Why isn't it attacking me? I wonder if the Maid would have explained it if I hadn't chased her off."

Here she had a difficult decision to make. She could do what she wanted and kill the troll and be stronger for it or she could attack a creature minding its own business and lose her claim that she only killed in self-defense. Or she could just start lying about the whole self-defense thing. She tried poking the troll but it didn't do anything so she reluctantly gave up and went inside the first building she saw.

She saw a fae with purple skin inside.

"Hello," he greeted her amiably. "I am Sir Sagrell. The lady said you would come. She also said you were beautiful but I notice she has strange tastes."

Fayne considered getting offended but realized it would be a waste of time getting worked up whenever a fae said something unspeakably rude by mortal standards. He probably just meant that she didn't have purple or blue skin anyway. "Sir Sagrell? How are you back already? You've been dead for like a week."

"Fae can return quickly or after a long while," Sagrell explained. "It so happens that I have returned quickly only to be snapped up by the lady."

"Well, uh, this is awkward," Fayne admitted. "I just recently completed your ballad and became the new Sir Sagrell."

"Ah, of course!" Sagrell said, nodding. "I keep forgetting that I am no longer of the House of Ballads and you are Sagrell now."

"You can call me Fayne," Fayne said. "I'll call you Sagrell. You have more experience at it and I don't have anything else to call you."

"If you like," Sagrell said agreeably. "Though do keep in mind that Sagrell was never my original name."

"You keep calling her 'our lady'," Fayne noted. "And yet you don't have that enchantment glow around you and you don't sound like you're possessed."

"Well I am enslaved," Sagrell said. "I don't know, maybe it's the fact that now I'm a winter fae-"

"Wait a second," Fayne interrupted. "You just up and became a winter fae?"

"I didn't do it on purpose," Sagrell said. "But what did you think the purple skin was about?"

"I don't know. I've never met a winter fae before, I don't think. You're not evil, are you?" Fayne asked, feeling a bit silly for the question.

Sagrell actually rolled his eyes at her. "Being a winter fae doesn't make me evil or even a Tuatha. And ask them if they feel like they're evil. But now that I'm a winter fae, perhaps that leaves me less susceptible to the lady's wishes. I know how to stop her but I can't do it myself. You're not enchanted, though, so if you could go out and destroy all her crystals you'll be able to find a way into her castle. Of course, you'll need a way to make them appear and I can't help you there."

"Now that I've got covered, actually," Fayne said, taking her whistle out of her backpack. "I'm glad that I don't have to kill you."

"I am, too, but remember that it's a bit soon to say you won't and I'm still sort of under her control," Sagrell said. "Oh, before you go I should probably tell you that the same enchantment she has cast on all of us has been cast on all the wild fae here to make them not attack."

Fayne snapped her fingers. "You know, I was actually wondering about that! But I kind of forgot to ask. Thanks for letting me know."

With that, she set out to find and destroy the crystals. She had to keep blowing on the whistle what seemed like every other minute but eventually she managed to destroy all of them. She did have to admit that this would probably have taken much longer if she had to fight the animals, too. Then when the last crystal was destroyed the fae suddenly did start attacking which was one way of measuring progress.

She passed Sagrell as he was on his way out. He told her he was free now that the crystals were destroyed, gave her a talisman, and told her to reveal the castle she had to go ring a bell. She was pleased that her predecessor was such a reasonable guy. And he even told her that he hoped her gods would protect her and didn't mention anything about them being hollow gods!

Too bad that he had to rush off immediately to go become a winter fae and she still had to kill her way through the House of Ballads. She was really starting to like these people.


	7. Chapter 7

She had barely stepped foot in the castle before the Maid once more appeared before her.

"Oh, come on!" Fayne complained. "I'll get to you soon enough and you can be creepy all you want then but just stop interrupting me or I'll never get to you!"

"What, you don't want me to constantly pop up and distract you from your quest?" the Maiden asked, surprised.

"NO," Fayne said firmly.

"Well let me just tell you then that the fates of Airmer and Creth are on your head," the Maid accused.

"First off, I haven't seen Creth since he didn't care that I killed his best friend right in front of him and, secondly, the only reason that I had to kill Airmer in the first place was because you bewitched him so it's actually on your head," Fayne countered.

"What?" the Maid demanded. "He was supposed to be waiting to kill you for my favor!"

"Possibly he took a wrong turn somewhere," Fayne suggested. "Or perhaps I did."

"It's true that all this could rightly be called my fault," the Maid admitted. "But I don't care about the people you've killed."

"Since they're fae, I can't really blame you," Fayne admitted. "Though I suspect things might be a little different this time. I guess that's what resurrection potions are for?"

"They should be thanking me anyway. Actually, with the enchantment they are thanking me. I saved them from their fate to just keep playing out the same old tales for the rest of eternity," the Maid boasted.

"Yeah, you know that they could quit doing that whenever they felt like and have someone else take on the role, right?" Fayne asked rhetorically. "The villains appear to be the only ones who are actually the original villains."

"You should join me," the Maid said. "We can rule together! And I will love you for the rest of your days. Possibly mine, too, but you're going to die before me."

"I wouldn't count on it," Fayne said grimly. "And I'm not going to play your Wencen. Get over it."

Insulted, the Maid vanished and Fayne was allowed to proceed.

Sir Farrara was the first one waiting for her.

"Sagrell," he greeted. The enchanted ones who were out to kill her always seemed so pleased to see her. It was odd. "It's time for the two of us to fight."

"The last time the two of us fought we were fighting together against a thresh-"

"It was Bloody Bones not a bloody thresh!" Farrara interrupted. "That's your story."

"Don't even care," Fayne said. "So we were fighting the Bloody Bones together and you died and I didn't."

"Well I was fated to die, that's entirely different," Farrara protested. "Besides, I'm fine now."

"Except for the enchantment."

"Enchantment? What enchantment?" Farrara asked. "You have caused the Maid much grief which saddens me. When I kill you she will be pleased."

Fayne stared at him. "You…are just not at all good at reading the situation, are you? She isn't upset with me and I haven't caused her any grief yet. She keeps trying to seduce me, I think, and she'd really hate it if you killed me before she could try to talk me around yet again. And clearly she's cool with you and everyone else dying because she keeps putting you in my way, knowing I have no skill with dispellment, and she fully expects me to reach her."

"Lies!" Farrara cried out as he attacked.

Fayne sighed heavily after he was dead. Some rescue operation this was turning out to be.

She found the next two together though she hadn't seen them before and so didn't know who they were.

"Look here, Oleyn, it seems there's still some vermin to be exterminated," one of the fae said tauntingly.

Oleyn was something even though it was only a name and she didn't know anything else about her.

"Who are you?" Fayne asked blankly.

The fae scowled fiercely at her. "I am Queen Belmaid! Well, that is to say, I am Belmaid and the former queen."

Just in case Fayne had been entertaining any ideas about becoming Wencen, which she seriously wasn't, being stuck with someone as nasty as Belmaid would certainly change her mind. Perhaps it wasn't fair to decide that Belmaid was horrible after she only said two things but the other enchanted knights had all been quite pleasant and here Belmaid was being obnoxious. Perhaps she was always like that.

Either way, having no sort of emotional attachment at all to Belmaid or her friend Oleyn Fayne was able to kill them with literally regret at all.

Though that wasn't the story she would be telling Wencen.

When she eventually found him, she paused, confused at the lack of glowing green light around his head.

"Finally, you're here!" he exclaimed.

"Were you expecting me?" Fayne asked uncertainly.

"The Maid wouldn't shut up about it," Wencen said, grimacing.

Fayne raised her eyebrows. "Oh, are you not enchanted then?"

"No, she said she didn't want to force me and she wanted this to be about us and our love," Wencen explained. "I called her out on her hypocrisy given how many times she's kidnapped me and she left in a huff. I haven't seen her since."

"Not for nothing but…since you're not enchanted and don't appear to be under any sort of guard and since the wild fae here were completely tame until I destroyed her crystals why didn't you just leave?" Fayne asked.

Wencen blinked at her. "I…don't take your meaning."

"I'm saying I can't think of any reason for you to still be here. She's not even making a token effort to keep you restrained," Fayne pointed out.

"I…" Wencen trailed off, looking lost. "A good king does not abandon his subjects!"

"You didn't think of it, did you?" Fayne asked knowingly.

Wencen slumped. "It's never been my part in the telling to just run away!"

"And I guess it still isn't," Fayne said.

"Tell me, please," Wencen entreated. "Have you seen my subjects? What of my beautiful wife?"

Fayne started coughing uncontrollably.

Wencen narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What?"

"Well the good news is that I found several of your people including your wife," Fayne said.

"And what's the bad news?" Wencen asked. "You killed them all?"

"Not all of them!" Fayne insisted. "I never ran into Creth again and the previous Sagrell wandered off to go be evil or something. I don't know, he's a winter fae."

"But you killed everyone else?" Wencen demanded. "Including my wife?"

"I only killed Airmer, Farrara, your wife, and someone named Oleyn," Fayne said defensively. "Oh, and the former champion of the Maid but I'm not sure he was on our side enough to count."

"Why would you kill them?" Wencen couldn't believe it. "You are terrible at rescuing."

"Hey, it's not my fault that I have no talent at dispelling," Fayne protested.

"Why didn't you come find me first? I could have saved all of them!" Wencen declared.

Fayne held up her hands. "Hey, there was nothing to be done about Airmer. She wouldn't stop nagging me until I dressed like this and I had to fight him for the outfit. And I might have run into Farrara before I could have run into you."

"You still could have saved my wife!"

"I'm not psychic!" Fayne shouted. "I didn't know that you weren't under mind control and that you could help!"

Wencen frowned. "Well I suppose what's done is done and at least she will come back to me in time."

"Yes…"

"The Maid is terrible. She is completely distorting the Telling. Who even knows what will happen? I appear to have no role in this tale," Wencen complained.

"No role except pretty much the same role you've always had since she still kidnapped you and is even giving you special treatment by not brainwashing you," Fayne pointed out.

"That may be true," Wencen admitted. "But did I mention that my wife and Oleyn are supposed to help free me?"

"Well…that's what I'm here for. So your part really isn't changing," Fayne said. "Do you know where the Maid is?"

"Despite what I just said about how all of this is so very different, I'm confident that she's in the same spot that we always end these little showdowns," Wencen said. "I'll show you."

"Well okay then."

"Let's just hope that the fact that I am not literally guaranteed victory doesn't mean I turn into a coward and run at the last second," Wencen said, worried.

Fayne kept a close eye on him as he led her to the Maid.

"Wait, stop, I can't do this," Wencen said, stopping suddenly.

"This better not be what it sounds like," Fayne growled.

"If what it sounds like is that I'm not going with you then yes, I'm afraid it does," Wencen said apologetically.

"Wencen, she killed your wife!"

"Actually, that was you," Wencen pointed out.

"Right and it was her fault that I had to do that," Fayne said. She paused. "I feel a little hypocritical about that whole 'personal responsibility' thing right about now but, to be fair, the fact she enchanted Belmaid was why I had to kill her in the first place. And…now I'm wondering all sorts of things that I really shouldn't be wondering about just how into the whole marriage thing you two get. But don't tell me! I don't want to know! Except I kind of do. But no!"

"I wasn't even going to tell you," Wencen assured her.

"Can you please explain to me why you've come all this way only to quit at the last second?" Fayne demanded.

"Well, really, I had no choice about being brought to the castle and it hasn't been that long of a walk since where you found me," Wencen pointed out. "Besides, you don't understand!"

"I definitely don't understand. Every time you've faced her, which is apparently a ridiculous amount of times, you kick her ass easily. Why's this time so different?"

"We've never engaged in fair combat before," Wencen admitted. "It's always her lowering her guard and me stabbing her in the heart. But with her fixation on you and her changing the telling I don't think that's likely to happen this time. I would not even know how to face her."

"What do you mean you wouldn't know how to face her?" Fayne asked, puzzled. "You just go and fight her. Throw magic at her. Hit her with a club. Slice her with a sword. I don't even care what you do, just do something violent."

"It's always been so easy before. I was never faced with the prospect of failure," Wencen continued, not really listening.

"And with me there you really won't be faced with the prospect of failure since I'm definitely going to kick her ass," Fayne boasted. "And what, you'd run away from the chance of failing and ensure you'd fail?"

"This way no one can know what would have happened had I faced her," Wencen explained.

"Except we do know since I'm going to win with or without you," Fayne said.

"Then why do you want me to face this with you so much?"

"Because you shouldn't be being a stupid coward and should just help me end this!" Fayne exclaimed. "Besides, you know that everyone is going to assume you were going to lose and that's why you left."

"I shall have to live with that," Wencen said. He took out a token and gave it to her. "This is the king's token. You're the only one worthy of it now."

"This doesn't even make any sense," Fayne said, rubbing at her forehead frustratedly. "Unless…did accepting this just make me Wencen? As in, the one that the Maid's been obsessed with all this time? I feel like this is an outcome she'd be angling for…Wencen, you bastard!"

"I believe in you!" He called over his shoulder as he sped away.

There was nothing to do but continue on and face the Maid and finally end this. The doorway had a strange white magical tint to it but it dissolved the moment she approached it so what was even the point of that?

"Hello, we meet again," the Maid said brightly. "In the flesh this time and everything."

"I'd be a lot more enthusiastic about our meeting, even if this time it's in the flesh, if it weren't for the fact that you kept harassing me on my way up here," Fayne told her.

The Maid shrugged. "I suppose that's fair. I notice Wencen isn't with you. Did you murder him despite my lack of enchanting him or did he run away like a coward?"

"The second one," Fayne said, sighing.

"How pathetic," the Maid sneered. "Looks like I'll be needing a new Wencen."

"Well don't you dare look here," Fayne said sharply.

"Aw, why not?" the Maid whined. "We have so much in common!"

"We do?" Fayne asked blankly. "We're both female and have come back to life and are judging Wencen so very hard for just up and ditching me but I think that's it."

The Maid laughed. "Oh, it's not just that, trust me! We both challenge the past and strive to rewrite the future."

"What does that even mean?" Fayne wondered. "You with your never-ending ballad are trying to rewrite the tales you keep having to play out and thus, in a way, rewrite the future. But how is that challenging the past? And my life doesn't have a script so there's nothing to rewrite."

"I'm changing fate with my prismere! You have no fate!"

"That's a rumor," Fayne said indignantly.

The Maid's jaw dropped. "You still haven't gotten that confirmed yet?"

"I'm a little busy thanks to you," Fayne said curtly.

"How would you like to rule at my side and be the new king and queen of the House of Ballads?" the Maid asked hopefully.

Fayne opened her mouth to respond then shut it again, thinking. "Would you be Queen Belmaid or Queen the Maid of Windemere? The Queen of Windemere?"

"Don't be absurd," the Maid scoffed. "I'd be Queen Magwyr."

"But I'd be stuck being King Wencen."

The Maid nodded. "Of course."

"Who is Magwyr anyway?"

"Me," the Maid said, looking affronted. "It's my name."

"Oh. Huh."

"So are we going to do this or what?" the Maid asked.

"I'd sooner stab myself in the eye," Fayne said.

"Well perhaps I can do it for you then!" the Maid declared as she attacked.

She blatantly cheated by summoning all sorts of help but Fayne kept at it and wore her down.

"Wait, please don't kill me!" the Maid begged at the last moment.

Fayne paused. "What are you doing? Don't you have any dignity?"

"When it come to being dignified and dying and not being dignified and maybe living then…no. No I don't. Why would I? Why would anybody?" the Maid asked sensibly.

"That…is a good point," Fayne was forced to concede. "But it is still damn annoying."

"I'm not a bad person, really," the Maid claimed.

"You keep abducting Wencen to use as a sex slave and have now started to enslave people," Fayne said flatly.

"Is it my fault it's my fate?"

"It might actually be, I'm not sure," Fayne said. "I don't really get how this works myself but it seems to me that if you were, say, a saintly sort of person you probably wouldn't get the fate where you had to be a villain and if you were some sort of ruthless killer it wouldn't be your fate to run an orphanage."

"Well it's been a very long time regardless. Don't I deserve to be free?"

Fayne crossed her arms. "How can you even ask me that with a straight face after enslaving all the members of the House of Ballads?"

"Hey, you did more harm to them than I did!" the Maid burst out. "I only enchanted them. You could have freed them but you chose to kill them."

"Except, no, I couldn't have freed them as I didn't have any dispel skill," Fayne said.

"And what, exactly, was stopping you from going to a Fateweaver and getting some dispellment before you came here and then changing it back afterwards?" the Maid asked rhetorically. "You knew you'd need it going in."

"I…" For once, Fayne was speechless.

"I thought so," the Maid said triumphantly, smirking. "Now, since all I wanted to do was earn my freedom and stop being a villain it would be immoral to kill me. And sure, I might have had to do some pretty questionable things to get to this point but it's hardly my fault I had to go so hard-core evil to break free of being a villain."

"I'm sorry, I just don't see it," Fayne said, shaking her head. "You're clearly enjoying being a villain. Clearly. And everything you did the first time was quite villainous and I don't see how you would have managed to redeem yourself by being thwarted and killed by the House of Ballads time and time and time again. It seems to have just made you more bitter and villainous."

"None of this is my fault!" the Maid protested. "I had to! Fate! After all this time, wouldn't you love it, too?"

"Stop using Fate as a crutch!" Fayne snapped. "If you had it your way, you'd enslave every member of the House of Ballads forever. That doesn't make you a good guy. Your Fate may be unpleasant but you're not much of a victim. And what was stopping you from retiring anyway?"

"What do you mean retire?" the Maid asked blankly.

"None of the people you're facing now are the original people. It's not even the same Wencen and you're just chasing after a name," Fayne pointed out. "If they can retire and give the title off to somebody else then why not you?"

"I…well…It's one thing to have people lining up to be heroes. Who would want to be the next Maid of Windemere?" the Maid asked plaintively.

"I don't know if you're aware of this, but the retiring person doesn't exactly hold the auditions themselves. Maybe no one would want to be the new Maid of Windemere but that would hardly be your problem," Fayne said. "And it's not like they could force you to keep playing the role if you didn't like it."

"Well now I just feel foolish," the Maid admitted.

"And you're pretty obviously still evil. I can't trust you not to be evil and come back and do this all again and now you've got Prismere. And you'll just keep coming back to life more bitter and trapped by your own mentality far more than Fate than ever before. You can't stand to see them win. It really does suck for you but killing you is clearly the moral option here, or at least as moral as killing people ever is. You can't just say that sparing you is the moral choice because sparing people in general is the moral choice. Should I just not kill any bad guys ever and let them keep terrorizing people so I could cling to a simplistic concept of moral superiority?" Fayne asked rhetorically before delivering the killing blow.

It was strangely still once the Maid was dead. She could hear birds chirping which was odd given that she was surrounded by so much death. There was nothing for it but to go back to the House of Ballads then.

\----

She supposed that she did manage to do some good despite being forced to kill every member of the House of Ballads she came across except for Creth and that coward Wencen because when she returned she found the place was once more populated by the Summer fae.

As she walked by, many of them felt the need to inform her that she had saved them as if she didn't know. Well, actually she kind of didn't know. How had she managed to save them? Killing the Maid, sure, but where had they been and what had they been doing? Did killing the Maid mean that the spell on everyone had broken? Maybe she should have just run away all of the members of the Court of Enchantments that she had met and so not killed them. She still would have had to face Airmer but surely she could have just beaten him unconscious and taken his armor. She did feel a lot more mystical wearing it. Slightly pretentious, too, but she could live with it.

She hurried over to Hallam as he was the one most likely to know what was going on.

"You have returned victorious," Hallam said, pleased.

"I have returned."

"I…did just say that, yes," Hallam said, eyeing her a little strangely. "I know that you had a chance to change the telling and make the Maid the ruler of the House of Ballads and yet you did not."

"I can honestly claim that I was not even slightly tempted," Fayne told him. "And why would I have come here and sought to be a part of all of this if I just wanted to change everything?"

"You would have to ask our brethren of the House of Valor that," Hallam said wryly. "Still, though you sought to keep everything the same there have been changes. It was not your fault as the Maid had twisted everything almost beyond recognition already and Wencen chose to flee before even facing her. You did the best you could and kept us mostly on track and for that I thank you."

"What now?" Fayne asked. "Are you going to keep redoing the original tales or work these new events into the telling?"

"I do not know," Hallam admitted. "The old telling have served us for so long but now we have new adventures. I do not wish to forget the worthy deeds you have just done or to cast aside the worthy deeds performed by heroes of long ago. Perhaps we shall do both and have the original ballads and new ballads where the original ballads all go horribly wrong and a hero must step up to fix them. It is just a little complicated as you were Sagrell and being Wencen must be a far less attractive proposition these days."

"Poor Wencen," Fayne said sympathetically.

"You feel pity for Wencen?" Hallam asked sharply. "It is, perhaps, regrettable that his courage failed him but it is one thing to go into battle time and time ago with victory assured. It may be difficult but it is nothing compared to the uncertainty that he rejected. He deserves whatever scorn shall be heaped on him in the future."

"Perhaps this individual Wencen does," Fayne agreed. "But what about the Wencens of days past? I know it's kind of a difficult subject to talk about with all the cognitive dissonance but does the original Wencen who did all of these brave things and never once fled from the Maid or anything else because maybe he might possibly lose deserve to be remembered as a coward who fled at the first sign of real adversity? What about the half a dozen Wencens who did their part before him? They were never faced with the adversity that the first Wencen or current Wencen had to deal with and so they might have all fled, too, but we don't know that for sure. It just seems so unfair to take a great hero and then sully his legacy because a representative of his couldn't live up to the name."

Hallam bowed his head. "Your point is well-taken, Sagrell, but it is how it must be. Wencen is Wencen and that is how the House of Ballads operates. If the original Wencen deserved more than it is on the current Wencen for failing to deliver it."

Fayne sighed. "I suppose. But even if the original Wencen has really relinquished all ties to his own name and deeds – if he's even still around – I'm mortal and it doesn't sit right with me."

"Since Wencen failed and you succeeded in killing the Maid, I hope you realize what this means," Hallam told her. "Aside from the fact that we're going to have to be holding a lot of auditions and the Maid is possibly a little more permanently dead than usual."

Fayne cleared her throat awkwardly. "Ah, no, I don't realize what that means."

"You're the new king of the House of Ballads," Hallam said grandly.

"King huh?" Fayne repeated, sighing. "Oh, why not? I'm assuming with Wencen's name tarnished I'm not him and I can't imagine you'd start referring to me by my actual name."

"You are correct. Sir Sagrell has become King Sagrell," Hallam informed her. "Congratulations, my liege."

Fayne laughed. "How about that, huh? And I only came to tell you that a member of this house had been attacked. Listen, I've only been here a short time and so don't really know what you guys do when in between tellings but I've kind of got things to do. Is it a problem if I go out and have outside adventures?"

Hallam shook his head. "Of course not. And if the adventures are worthy enough, we might even add them to our telling seeing as how they were performed by our King Sagrell."

"Much cooler than killing a thresh for a ring or whatever," Fayne said approvingly. "Well, Hallam, it's been fun. Let me know if you need me for any reenactments!"

\----

Now that she had gone off and become the king of a fae house, Fayne thought maybe she should stop putting off going to see Arden and finding out what was going on with her fate or lack thereof. The weird purple killing thing that had been suggested to her to be beating someone to death with their own fate and possibly killing them for good also bore looking into. She wasn't even sure why she kept doing that to people, particularly the people she hadn't wanted to kill from the House of Ballads. It was just instinctive, she supposed.

When she arrived back at the hut, she found an alfar woman kneeling over a bloody corpse.

"What did you do?" Fayne demanded, horrified.

"I know that this must look really bad but I swear I didn't actually do it," the woman claimed defensively.

Fayne blinked. "Is that how it looks whenever I find myself standing over the bodies of bodies I didn't put there? I do not seem at all convincing in that case."

The woman perked up and stood. "Oh, this sort of thing happens to you all the time as well? That's good, you should be a little more understanding then."

"Mostly I'm wondering what it says about the two of us that this is a persistent problem and wondering if I should maybe make an effort to change something about myself so I can cut down on all of this," Fayne admitted.

"I don't see how it's our fault seeing as how we arrive when the bodies are already there," the woman said.

"Who are you?" Fayne asked. "Why are you here?"

"I'm pretty much your best friend so I'm assuming you have amnesia, possibly relating to the fact that you must have come back from the dead," the woman said thoughtfully. "My name is Alyn Shir."

"You knew who I was before?" Fayne asked hopefully. "Who was I? How did I die? What's my real name?"

Alyn laughed. "Ah, such questions! I could tell you everything right now, I suppose, but then what reason would you have for investigating further and eventually killing a god?"

Fayne paled. "Wait, what? Killing a god…that doesn't sound like something I want to do."

"And that's exactly why I can't tell you more," Alyn said apologetically.

"At least tell me my name!" Fayne pleaded.

"Why? What are you going by now?" Alyn asked curiously.

"Fayne."

"Fayne," Alyn repeated. "I like it."

"Oh come on!"

"Sorry, no can do," Alyn said in a sing-song voice. "Maybe later if I'm in a good mood. But if you're used to going by Fayne finding out your real name could just be incredibly confusing."

"For my supposed best friend, I don't think I like you very much," Fayne said, narrowing her eyes.

Alyn sighed and shook her head. "I've heard that before."

"Why are you even here? Do you know who killed Arden?" Fayne asked.

"Arden? Is that the Fateweaver? Well, yes, I do know who killed him. I was following some Tuatha and they did it."

"Why didn't you stop them if you were following them?" Fayne asked. "Did they literally manage to kill him in the thirty seconds or so that it took you to arrive here behind them?"

Alyn shook her head. "Oh, no, I absolutely could have stopped it. But frankly this Fateweaver's life wasn't worth not finding out why they were here. I was hoping to find some information from his corpse but now I can clearly see they wanted you since you came back from the dead and whatnot."

"That doesn't even make any sense!" Fayne complained. "I could see not wanting to kill the Tuatha so you could question them but evidently you just let them leave and didn't even bother following after them. And what makes you think something on Arden's corpse would explain it better than Arden could? And if it turns out they just wanted to find me, which would be stupid as they didn't stick around waiting for me to show up, you saving him wouldn't have changed the fact that I was going to show up here. But now I can't get what I was showing up here to get anyway so you just let the Tuatha win. Way to go, Alyn."

"I can see where I'm not wanted," Alyn sniffed. "Do try to be less critical, dear. It'll do wonders for your blood pressure." With that, she threw down some strange powder and when the smoke cleared she was gone.

Right after she had left, Agarth burst in. "What happened here?"

"I didn't do it!" Fayne swore. "In fact, when I came in here I found someone completely different kneeling over his corpse and, for what it's worth, she claimed that she also didn't do it. I'm not sure if I believe her, though. She did say that she could have stopped it but something stupid about wanting to know why the Tuatha who killed him killed him and that could only be accomplished by letting the victim die and the murderers wander off to go be evil."

"If there was another woman, I sure didn't see her."

Fayne narrowed her eyes. "What are you saying? You don't believe me? You think I made this Alyn Shir up? She used magic to slip away right before you got here."

"I'm not saying I disbelieve you. It's just a little…odd," Agarth said delicately. "And you are using her existence to make me think you didn't kill poor Arden here. And even if everything happened like you said, I sent you after Arden two months ago! What took you so long to get here! He's clearly freshly dead. You took so long and I never heard from you I finally resolved to come check it out for myself."

Fayne winced. "Yeah, about that…I know you said it was important I come here and see if I'm truly without Fate. I did, in fact, walk right by here and briefly saw Arden fully alive but I had to go visit the House of Ballads to deliver a message in the unlikely event the fae would declare war on the village of Gorhart if I didn't and then things spiraled out of control and I became the king of the House of Ballads."

"King?"

"It's kind of a long story," Fayne said tightly.

"Well I'm sure that was all very interesting," Agarth told her. "But why not just stop by and ask Arden about the fateless thing when you were walking by?"

Fayne shrugged. "I wasn't up for dealing with that right then. Besides, I figured that simple request would spiral out into a lot of other requests if I'm actually fateless and then I'd never have time to go to the House of Ballads. It was worth the delay, I think."

"Arden might not have been killed if you had just gone straight there like you were supposed to!" Agarth burst out.

Fayne crossed her arms, unimpressed. "I had no way of knowing he would die and you don't know that they wouldn't have killed him to find out what I wanted here or something. Besides, that's what you get for bossing me around and then leaving. I got an invitation to go join the Warsworn, too, just so you know."

Agarth's eyes widened. "Oh, don't you dare! We have to get to Dellach."

"What?" Fayne asked quizzically.

"Dellach," Agarth repeated. "It's a sacred site for Fateweavers. I was hoping to avoid it at all costs and get Arden to tell you but he's dead and it might be related to this or at least to your refusal to come in a reasonable timeframe. Still, I'm not getting vibes you're learning anything from your ridiculous delay so I don't want to get others killed and I guess I'll just have to take you even though I really, really don't want to go there."

"Is there anything particular about sacred sites that make you want to avoid them?" Fayne wondered. "Do they insist you be sober when you visit them or something?"

Agarth shook his head. "No, it's not that, it's just…You know what, I'm not nearly drunk enough to talk about this. You'll see."

"Well are we going to go right now or…?" Fayne asked.

"You head over there. I'm going to bury this body and then meet you there," Agarth said.

"Are you sure? Because I could totally wait for you," Fayne offered.

"No, no, just go."

"I'll probably get distracted if you're not right there travelling with me," Fayne warned.

"Hopefully the head start will give you enough time to do other things and not keep me waiting too long," Agarth said. "Besides, I can fast travel there and I don't think you've ever been there so you can't."

"Fast travel?" Fayne repeated.

"Not that it's actually faster since it takes the same amount of time to get there but I don't have to manually walk there and can just teleport at the same rate that I would walk it which is certainly more convenient for me," Agarth mused. "And less likely to be set upon by enemies and side quests."

"Isn't that wasting minutes or hours of your life, though?" Fayne asked.

"Well, actually I don't know if you age while you're teleporting and can you honestly tell me that such a tedious walk isn't wasting minutes or hours of your life?"

"Well…no," Fayne admitted. "I should probably look into this fast travel thing."

"You do that. You know, this is the second time I've had to bury bodies you've left behind," Agarth grumbled.

"I didn't kill him!" Fayne protested. "And unless you're talking about burying Tuatha, the bodies over at the Well weren't my fault either!"

"Weren't you just on about personal responsibility?" Agarth asked her. "Or have you gotten over that in the two months since I last saw you?"

"I didn't kill any of them. I had nothing to do with being brought back to life and from what I can tell the Tuatha are after me because I came back to life, not anything specific about me. I didn't kill this man, either, and had no way of knowing that he would be in danger because of vague plans I had to come see him. If anything, you sent me to him. There's a difference between accepting personal responsibility for the things that you do and indiscriminately accepting responsibility for everything bad that happens that you hear about."

"See, now I feel like you're changing the rules and making things more complicated and this is why I want nothing to do with your personal responsibility nonsense," Agarth told her. "Now hurry up and go and try not to make me wait another two months before getting to Dellarch. Or, you know, do. In fact, never show up. No, wait, that's not right. Hurry up and go there."

"Okay…" Fayne said, beginning to wonder what was even up with him.


	8. Chapter 8

Fayne was just walking by when a smiling man stepped in her path. "Seriously? Can I just not go anywhere in peace?"

"Hello," he said. "My name is Oleander Sinclair. Are you one of the inhab…inhib…do you live around here?"

"No, I'm not one of the inhabitants of the town," Fayne replied.

"Ah, well that's okay. Surely you'd still be interested in purchasing one of these res…respl…risp…"

"I think the word you're looking for is 'resplendent'," Fayne said helpfully. "Look, I try not to judge when people have terrible vocabularies like you clearly do but maybe you shouldn't try to use big words if you can't pronounce them right."

Oleander drew himself up offended. "Of course I can pronounce them right!"

"In the last two minutes you've failed epically at both 'inhabitants' and 'resplendent'," Fayne pointed out. "And I'll give you resplendent. In the past I know I've had some difficulty deciding if the a in 'patronize' should be long or short. I think people might say it both ways, actually. But 'inhabitants' is an easy one."

Oleander continued looking defiant for a moment before breaking down. "Oh, alright! I should have known I couldn't fool you."

"Me in particular or just some random passer-by?" Fayne asked. "Because I don't think we really know each other. But, all things considered, I could be mistaken."

Oleander shook his head. "No, I don't think we've met either. But, considering my circumstances, I might also be mistaken."

"This is kind of eerie then," Fayne said shuddering. "Maybe we knew each other really well and not just have no idea. We will literally never know unless we did know each other and some third party who has no memory issues can confirm it. But if we didn't know each other we'll never be able to disprove our knowing each other."

"My mind is blown," Oleander breathed. "In the spirit of kind of maybe possibly knowing each other, can you do me a favor?"

"What kind of favor?" Fayne asked.

"I'm actually not Oleander Sinclair," Oleander admitted.

"Okay…so you're going under an assumed name. I don't see why this matters," Fayne said.

"The real Oleander Sinclair was pretty much the most brilliant potions brewer ever and a wonderful salesman to boot," Oleander said.

"In your completely unbiased opinion. I can't believe you stole a guy's name. Was, though? Is he dead?" Fayne asked shrewdly.

Oleander squirmed uncomfortably. "Well…yes. It's not my fault, though! I just found him that way. And knew who he was somehow. And decided to drink this mysterious potion I found on him instead of selling it. And drinking that potion, far from killing me, might have actually made me brilliant at alchemy. And brilliant in general. But now it's wearing off and I've gotten so used to using these half-remembered words that I keep trying to say them but can never even say them right."

"Well that does sound like quite the pickle," Fayne replied. "Why take his name? I mean, I can see the appeal of wanting to be a brilliant alchemist even if you're a total moron for drinking a random potion you found but surely you don't need his name to be good at alchemy."

"Well…no," Oleander admitted. "But I don't remember my own name because I'm a liar."

"What do those two things have to do with each other?" Fayne wondered. "Were you cursed because you were a liar into forgetting your own name? Even if you've used a false name for years and years I don't see why you'd literally forget your own name."

"I…that is a good question, actually," Oleander said, embarrassed. "I don't know. I just don't know. All I know is that I need this potion again. Last time I didn't know it would wear off but if you can get the potion I'll make sure I have more for when I need it."

"Ah, so that's what you need from me," Fayne said. "How am I supposed to get the potion?"

"Well I'm sure the Warsworn have some in their keep but they'd never let me in because I'm a liar," Oleander told her. "You could always just give me the two reagents that I need and I'd make the potion myself but that sounds like work."

"It would be far less work for me than going to go rob the Warsworn!" Fayne exclaimed. "Besides, I seek to join them one day but not right now so I don't even want to go there and risk causing problems. What reagents did you need?"

Oleander told her and she promptly produced them.

"You know, I'm not sure you deserve to go around artificially being a brilliant alchemist and stealing a dead guy's name and talent but this is making me feel a little better about having to kill a bunch of people because I was sick of not being able to pick a flower like a normal person," Fayne said.

"I…don't know what those two things have in common," Oleander admitted.

"And you don't need to," Fayne assured him. "All that matters is that you can make your stupid potion."

"Ah, well I can't actually make it," Oleander said apologetically. "I sort of forgot how."

Fayne looked like she wanted to kill him. "Fine. I'll be back shortly."

She hurried to the next town and created a minor alchemist's potion.

She nearly tripped on a woman bending over picking flowers. "Ah, I'm so sorry! I didn't see you there."

"No, it's quite alright," the woman said, smiling. Somehow she managed to look depressing even smiling. "My name is Gizela Wulflac."

"I'm sorry again," Fayne said. "Now I must be going-"

"It's just so hard, you know," Gizela interrupted, sighing tragically. "My poor Camden."

"That's great," Fayne said, attempting to back away.

"He's my husband, you know," Gizela told her. "We got married and then the very next day he went away and never came back."

Fayne winced. "Ouch. Well, these things happen sometimes I guess. Are you sure it was a real legal wedding and not just an excuse to, you know?"

Gizela reddened. "Of course I'm sure! My husband didn't just run off on me! He went off to war."

"And you're sure about this?" Fayne asked delicately.

"Yes!"

"And it had nothing to do with escaping you?"

Gizela narrowed her eyes. "Nothing at all! I knew he was going to war one day long before our wedding ceremony. That's not the problem. The issue is that I haven't heard anything from him since he left three years ago."

"He's probably dead then," Fayne said bluntly.

"Everyone always says that!" Gizela clenched her fists. "He's not dead. He's not, he's not, he's not!"

"Okay then," Fayne said, backing away a little further. "Didn't mean to upset you."

"It's just…the alfar army won't tell me anything. They never tell anybody anything," Gizela complained.

Fayne raised her eyebrows. "They won't even tell you if your husband is alive or dead?"

"They supposedly have people out delivering death notices but nobody ever wants to and the roads are dangerous so these things can take awhile and they ignored me when I wrote to them personally," Gizela explained. "Do you think you could go out and personally find him, stranger?"

Fayne stared at her. "You don't even know my name and you want me to somehow find your possibly-dead husband of one day out there somewhere in the world?"

Gizela nodded. "It might help if you went to the front. Or maybe Didenhil since it's where he volunteered."

"There is no way I'm going to actually expend any effort at all on this but if I literally happen across someone who answers to the name Camden Wulflac then I'll send him your way or at least make him write," Fayne offered.

"Well…as long as I'm not willing to go find him myself I suppose that's good enough," Gizela admitted, sounding somewhat disappointed.

"Why aren't you willing to go do that, by the way?" Fayne asked.

Gizela blinked at her. "Well I can't really defend myself on the open roads and I don't really have the money for that sort of world-wide expedition and if I go off and he comes here we'd just miss each other entirely."

"As far as excuses not to do things go, I've heard worse," Fayne said.

"It's not an excuse," Gizela said indignantly. "Oh, but I do hope you find him! After all these years how I will appear to him!"

She sounded really concerned but she still appeared to be quite young so Fayne asked, "How long ago did he leave?"

"Three years ago," came the prompt response.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Three years ago I'm willing to bet you looked pretty much exactly the way you look now. And he might have gotten all disfigured in the war or something anyway."

"I wouldn't care if he did," Gizela said boldly. "I would love Camden no matter what."

"Yeah, that's really great, but I've got to go before that guy ends up moving from where I left him," Fayne said. With that, she hurried back to Oleander.

Oleander didn't appear to recognize her. "Hey, don't look at me like that! I didn't do whatever it is that you think I did. Well…probably."

"Probably because you don't know what I'm looking at you for?" Fayne asked.

"That and the fact I honestly don't remember what I've been doing lately," Oleander said.

"I have to wonder if this lack of memory is a bad side effect of the potion wearing off or you really are just too stupid to remember your own name," Fayne said. "I'd say the former because otherwise how could you still be alive but being stupid doesn't mean you can't still kill people and take their stuff."

"Potion? What potion?" Oleander asked curiously.

Fayne sighed and rolled her eyes. "Here, just drink this."

Oleander shrugged, took the potion, and did just that. "Wow, that's amazing! I suddenly feel as though I'm an erudite man again, as though the haze from the contemptible oaf is lifting and the path before me is resplendent."

Fayne just stared at him. "There's no way this potion should be legal."

"We did agree that I would pay you for your troubles, did we not?" Oleander asked her rhetorically.

Actually they hadn't but they really should have and so Fayne sensibly kept her mouth shut, took the money, and left.

\----

She had just stepped foot into the village of Canneroc when something quite surprising happened. Some giant spiders just popped up from the ground or something and started attacking her. She hated dealing with giant spiders in general because of the annoying screeching sound they made, their venom, and their habit of putting her into a cocoon but normally at least she didn't have to deal with them when in civilized centers because normally such places had more sense than to build where animals would attack. Or maybe the animals had more sense than to attack towns outright instead of stragglers.

There was no one else in sight while she was fighting but once the battle was over and the spiders dead, a man hurried up to her.

"Thank the gods you're here!" he exclaimed.

"Why didn't you help me with that?" Fayne demanded, annoyed.

The man shrugged. "You looked like you had it under control."

"What does that have to do with it? You still could have helped me so I didn't have to kill them all by myself," Fayne said, crossing her arms in displeasure.

"I'm sorry," the man apologized. "My name is Garaner Vernt and I'm in charge around here. I just got so excited to see you and since I figured you must be the aid we've been requesting from pretty much everywhere. Oh, I was so worried that our messages weren't getting through! Tell me, where are you from and how many warriors do you have that for some reason you did not see fit to bring with you when you came here?"

Fayne wasn't sure what to say to that. "I…"

"I take it you aren't the aid we sent for then," Garaner realized. "I suppose our messengers were probably eaten by spiders then. That's unfortunate. Still, we're not ungrateful for your aid and you seem to be quite equipped to take care of yourself."

"This village isn't normally infested by giant spiders, is it?" Fayne asked.

Garaner chuckled. "No, not at all! Well, we're right at the edge of Webwood and we're mostly a bunch of silk farmers so you see we would never want spiders to completely disappear from our lives – well, maybe some of us now – but lately the summer fae's protection has faded and they've all come to attack."

"That doesn't sound good," Fayne said worriedly. "An entire town attacked by spiders. I don't do this very often but this is pretty major. Is there anything that I can do to help?"

Garaner's face lit up. "I am so glad that you asked! How would you like to go looking for our chief defender Barten and his party? They went to investigate the attacks the other day and never came back. Of course, I'm convinced that they're probably all dead but we have to be sure don't we?"

"That is sensible," Fayne agreed. "And hopefully they're not dead and can come back here to protect the village."

"Yes, quite," Garaner drawled. "Listen, I have some more information to give you so go meet me on the bridge and I'll tell it to you."

Fayne blinked. "Is there any particular reason you can't just tell me what it is right now? While we're talking?"

"Yes, there is," Garaner said but rather than sharing his reason he just walked away.

Since he was being ridiculous, Fayne decided to go explore some of the buildings before going to speak to him again. If he didn't want to wait he shouldn't have made her have two separate conversations with him.

"Oh, thank goodness someone from the outside finally made it in!" a woman cried out.

"While…that is true," Fayne said slowly, "how can you seriously know everybody that lives here? Do you have any idea how creepy that is?"

"I don't think it is, no," the woman said. "It's a small town."

"If it's a town large enough to sustain its population it should be big enough that you don't know who everyone is," Fayne replied. "Who are you?"

"My name is Syllareta Vauner and I am the town's healer," Syllareta introduced. "Since you managed to fight your way here through all the spiders I feel like you will be able to handle my request and I only hope that you actually will do so."

"What request?" Fayne asked.

"Normally I have anti-venom on hand for any silk farmers that get bitten but with all the attacks I'm afraid I've quite run out. I have most of the ingredients but with our exposure to the venom we have become more sensitive to it so I'll still need fifteen poison glands from the spiders," Syllareta explained.

Fayne drew back, uncertain.

"What?"

"I'm sorry, it's just…I'm not expert but how does it make any sense that repeated exposure to a poison would make you more susceptible?" Fayne asked. "If it doesn't kill you shouldn't you build up a resistance and be less sensitive to it?"

"That…does make a certain amount of logical sense," Syllareta agreed. "But you tell me why it is that natives get more sick than travelers who get poisoned?"

"That I cannot do," Fayne said. "I can, however, bring you the glands since I'm going to be heading out there anyway looking for Barten and crew. Oh, wow, this is going to be so messy."

That settled, she returned to Garaner.

"Now that we are safely away from prying ears we can talk," he said, his voice low.

"Yeah, there wasn't actually anybody twenty feet away where we were originally standing, either," Fayne pointed out. "You must read too many spy novels."

"Look, I'm just going to level with you. Barten is usually in charge even though all he wants to do is chase shadows and superstitions instead of harvesting riches," Garaner said disgustedly. "Thinks are much better for everyone with me in charge. Really. But Barten is kind of a badass and there's no way he's actually dead although the rest of his party probably is. I need you to go out and make sure he stays dead so I can stay in charge."

Fayne couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You want me to go out and kill somebody who seems to be the best protector this town has so you can stay in charge?"

"I never said that!" Garaner said loudly, looking around wildly. "I said please find Barten, gods willing he still lives!"

"Yeah but two seconds ago you just said the exact opposite and this whole pretending not to know what I'm talking about before I can ask some clarifying questions is no way to get me to agree," Fayne warned.

"But I really do have no idea what you're talking about," Garaner said innocently.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Fine. I assume you can still concede that should Barten miraculously return you'll be out of a job? But if you're such a better leader than him then why would his return cause this?"

Garaner gave a long-suffering sigh. "It turns out that the people of Canneroc like superstition and shadow-chasing."

"What kind of superstition and shadow-chasing is he doing?" Fayne inquired.

"He wants to do things like 'find out why the spiders are attacking us in our homes' and 'stop them from wiping all of us out' and not focusing on making a profit," Garaner explained.

"As I live and breathe, an actual straw man," Fayne said, somewhat awed. "Is there any point in asking how you expect to make a profit if no one can come trade with you or deliver the silk anywhere due to the spider attacks? And no one can even harvest any silk for the same reason? And there's a good chance you're all going to be killed by spiders?"

"Oh, nonsense," Garaner scoffed. "We'll be fine. After all, that's what all of our greatest hunters are for!"

"Your greatest hunters who all went off to get themselves killed with Barten?" Fayne asked pointedly.

"Well that just goes to show that his plan is equally stupid," Garaner said. "Or even more so! At least I didn't get them all killed."

"I'm…just going to go find Barten," Fayne said.

"Don't you dare bring him back," Garaner said quietly even as he smiled brightly at her. "Good luck!"

"Wow he is terrible at subtlety," Fayne marveled as she set off.

\----

Deep in a cave, she found a heavily armed man casually poking at three giant spiders with a lance.

"I take it you're Barten?" she asked as she set the spiders on fire.

"Yes, I am," Barten confirmed as he quickly moved back. "Could you maybe have given me a little warning before setting the people I was attacking on fire?"

"Well, you were standing pretty far away," Fayne said. "But sorry, I'm not really used to fighting with other people since for the most part I wander the world alone."

"I've been wandering these caves along for the past two days," Barten told her. "It's been impossible to get out. My men have all been killed and I don't even want to know where the bodies have disappeared to."

Fayne wrinkled her nose. "Probably for the best. Listen, Garaner has betrayed you."

"That little shit!" Barten exclaimed immediately. "This whole stupid suicidal mission to go kill all the spiders in their cave and completely ignore why they were attacking us in the first place was all his idea! Like just killing all the spiders would work! Or, if it did, like it wouldn't put the whole town out of business. And now he tries to have me killed?"

"That's quite a leap," Fayne said. "Going from 'he's betrayed me' to 'he's tried to have me killed.'"

"What else could you have meant?" Barten asked reasonably. "How could he have possibly have betrayed me if it wasn't by trying to have me killed, either by sending you to kill me or just really hoping the spiders would kill me."

"That's a fair point," Fayne agreed. "And it was both, actually. He's also taken up leadership in your absence and wants to keep it. But why are you so quick to believe me? We've never met and I did just tell you I was sent to kill you."

"You haven't tried to kill me and that's definitely a good sign," Barten said. "I mean, I'm good and I've survived these caves when no one else did but you managed to cut a bloody swath through the cave to reach me. I don't think you'd need to catch me unawares and stab me from behind. And Garaner is just the kind of person who would want to have me killed so he can control the village, the actual good of the village be damned. No one wants him in charge but he's probably the second-best qualified after me. I'm not sure I'm the best leader and I certainly don't want the position but he is really, really inadequate. He seems to want to just ignore the problem. If spiders could bribe people, I'd suspect him of being in their pocket."

"That's pretty serious," Fayne said. "If he's obviously that bad, why would you even go on the mission in the first place?"

"Well we had to do something, didn't we?" Barten asked rhetorically. "I had a different idea but I knew I could never be the one to do it."

Fayne closed her eyes. "I have a bad feeling about where this is going…"

"It's not going anywhere until we're safely back in Canneroc," Barten promised. "But something you should probably know is that fighting these spiders and studying their movements over the past few days, I've realized that they've started to plan and strategize. It's how they killed my men. I refuse to believe that a bunch of spiders are smarter than me so I suspect there is an evil at work controlling them. Speak with me after we reach Canneroc. Speak with me, please!"

With that, he ran off.

"Why does everyone always keep doing that?" Fayne wondered vaguely before setting off after him.

She arrived back in Canneroc moments after he did.

"Hello," he greeted her. "For your part in saving me, I'm giving you this key to Gossamer's End. It's quite a lovely house though you may need to clean it up a bit since it hasn't been in use in some time. The blacksmith will not be willing to repair all of your things though, of course, you'll still have to pay him. And I've banished Garaner from the town so he'll probably be eaten by spiders."

"Wow," Fayne said, blinking. "I kind of can't believe just how much you've gotten done in the two minutes you've been back here. You are kind of amazing."

Barten shrugged modestly. "I only do the best that I can."

"Giving me a house? That's so incredibly generous, even if you weren't doing anything in particular with it! Thank you! This is so wonderful that I'm not even going to ask why you feel that the blacksmith wouldn't have agreed to take my money to repair things if you hadn't told him to."

"I'm glad you're not going to," Barten told her. "I do hope that now you'll be willing to go up to Castle Yolvan and see what's going on."

"Why do you think going there will help?" Fayne asked.

"The fae who lived up there were the ones who cast the first enchantment that allowed us to be able to build Canneroc in the first place and not all be devoured by spiders," Barten exposited. "I figure that we have three possibilities. The most hopeful possibility is that the enchantment just wore off and we need them to relay it or at the very least to teach us how to do it. It's possible that they are angry at us or stopped caring and may have even moved. And the most worrying possibility, of course, is that they've all been killed. Perhaps the Tuatha did it and perhaps the Widow. All I know is that we're never going to be able to stop the spiders unless we understand why they are attacking. And I can't go, of course, because I'm the leader of the town and so not only is me getting myself killed a bad plan but in my absence we may get another Garaner looking to take over."

"Well, I've already come this far," Fayne reasoned. "Fine, I'll go see what's going on up there."

Before she left, she made sure to give that healer the poison sacs so she wouldn't have to keep carrying them around with her and gave the blacksmith a truly obscene amount of money to make her house as nice and big as he could. There wasn't much of a chance it would see a good deal of use but it was a house and the only one she had.

She didn't know who she was, only that she had once died, and her supposed best friend refused to even tell her her name. But now she had a house. She did have some place to call her own and something told her that she was going to end up defending this place with her life.

How very inconvenient.

"Excuse me," a woman called out as she walked away from the blacksmith and apparent house upgrader. "Can I have a moment of your time? I heard that you're not afraid to pass through Webwood."

"Afraid is definitely not the right word for it," Fayne agreed. "Perhaps something like 'incredibly irritated at all these freaking spiders' would be more apt."

"Ah, that was exactly what I was hoping to hear! My name is Menri Togh and I think my entire family was murdered. Possibly by spiders," Menri explained.

"Well that's certainly unfortunate," Fayne said. "But I don't see why you need help. Don't tell me this is another burial quest!"

Menri shook her head. "No, it's not that. I got here a few days before the spider attacks and I've been here for weeks. Our farmhand, Cartery Jayck, recently showed up and wouldn't tell me anything about my parents for awhile and then he finally said they were eaten by spiders. He's just been acting so strange lately and won't talk to anyone, even me! I don't know if it's because he watched it happen and is horribly traumatized or what but I have to know! But not only would I not be able to make the journey safely on my own but I don't think I could stand to see what has become of them."

Fayne hesitated. "It's not far, is it?"

"Oh, no, not at all! You could probably be back by nightfall if you don't run into too many problems," Menri promised.

"Alright, then, I guess I'll look into it," Fayne agreed.

\----

Fayne had a pretty uneventful journey up to the castle if you didn't count the killer spiders. Unfortunately, it seemed like being ambushed by spiders or other creatures was the sign of an unremarkable journey.

Once in the castle, she didn't see anybody (except, once again, for some damned spiders) as she moved about it. That wasn't a good sign but it didn't prove anything as she was still looking through it. One thing she did notice was that the castle had a bad habit of having traps just lying out in the middle of the hallway. What was the point of that? Were they spider traps or something? Anyone sentient could tell the trap was there, at least after the first time stepping on that odd marking got them impaled, but it was just so big it was hard to avoid.

Fayne didn't even want to think about how scraped up she was and how unhygienic getting impaled on something that had probably impaled a lot of other people was. And just why would anyone need a trap like that every few feet in a place they lived? Wouldn't it be better just making the castle more impregnable?

But anyway, the fact that the castle itself was doing far more damage to her than the invading spiders aside, she found and activated a bunch of lorestones because she continued to be compulsive about that. She didn't stick around to listen but managed to pick up something about the Widow returning to kill all the fae in the castle. Strangely, once she had activated about a half a dozen of them a fae voice sounded talking about how she had thought her fun was over. That sounded rather ominous and Fayne followed the voice to a newly opened gate and stepped right through.

She was just walking along when all of a sudden a fae appeared literally right in front of her. She wasn't sure if this was just a projection or if it was getting out of stealth mode or a projection. Was that what it looked like to fast travel?

"Someone else here in the castle!" the fae exclaimed. "But it's only a dull mortal. I'm sure the fact you haven't been eaten already is just a fluke and you'll be eaten by my pets here. And even though I fully expect you to die a horrible painful death in the next few minutes, I'm willing to concede there's a possibility that you won't die so I'll tell you to deliver a message to that doomed town. The Widow is back and she is going to kill them all so she can reclaim this land for all spiders!"

With that she vanished.

"Well…okay then," Fayne said, shaking her head in bemusement. "I guess it's back to Canneroc for me."

On her way back to town, the journey was made slightly more interesting by finding some human remains and feeling a strange compulsion to gather them up, find the rest of the remains, and bury them all back in town. That was stupid and a waste of her time, though, so she left the bones where they were.

When she reached town, she was once again attacked by a couple of giant spiders. Since this was the same experience she had the first time, she didn't really think much of it and just electrocuted them all to death.

If she was expecting Barten to be grateful then she was sadly mistaken.

"It took you long enough!" he grouched. "What, did you go off and do some other quests before you came back here?"

"I, well, I sort of agreed to do something for someone and paid the blacksmith to upgrade my house but other than that I went straight there and back. I just got attacked by spiders and weird castle traps a lot," Fayne said. "I wasn't gone all that long!"

"Long enough for spiders to invade the town and nearly kill us all," Barten said stubbornly.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I guess, but honestly how long does that even take to happen?"

"Well you're back now so why don't you tell us how to defeat the spiders," Barten said loudly.

Fayne shrugged. "Everyone at the castle was eaten by spiders."

"That is…quite discouraging," Barten admitted, his shoulders sagging.

"The good news was that someone calling herself the Widow was there. I think she just hates people and towns and stuff and she wants to destroy you all because of it."

"That is good news indeed!" Barten exclaimed. "You just have to go and kill her and hopefully do it before we're all eaten by spiders."

Fayne groaned at the prospect of being sent off once again to save this town. "At least this will be easier than slaughtering every spider in the area."

"And better for the economy since we do, in fact, need some of them for silk farming purposes," Barten asked. "Best of luck, we'll all be hiding in the inn."

Fayne's eyes widened. "What, the whole town? The inn's really not THAT big."

"Eh, the logistics of that will be my problem while you're off saving us," Barten said easily, waving her away.

Well she knew where she wasn't wanted.


	9. Chapter 9

The Widow was just waiting for her in a cave which Fayne supposed was an indication that she was going the right way.

"The mortal from Castle Yolvan," she complained. "Your stubbornness in surviving is just another irritant from you mortals."

"As supposed to what exactly?" Fayne asked. "Your kind which would just lie down and die if you told them to?"

"You've met my kind, surely?" the Widow asked rhetorically. "What do you think they'd do if they believed that it was their fate to be killed by my spiders?"

Well, the Widow had her there.

"Or even if they thought it would be too inconvenient to try and escape on their own," the Widow continued thoughtfully. "We have a rather different attitude to suicide than mortals do and often do it if it seems like it would be easier."

"Well I'm not going to up and kill myself and I'm going to keep killing all of your spiders until I face you and then kill you, too," Fayne promised. "You might not come back from it, just so you know. I don't know for sure and I won't ever know unless I'm proven wrong one day by meeting Queen Belmaid again or something but I wouldn't risk it, personally."

"My kind endures," the Widow scoffed. "I'm enraged that you keep killing my spiders but I'm also going to keep throwing them at you until they kill you. I'm confident you cannot possibly kill them all."

"And I'm confident that I can. I do hope you have the sense not to blame me for their deaths when you're the one throwing them in my way," Fayne told her.

"How about this? You go and kill everyone in Canneroc for me thus doing what I wanted in the first place but with less effort expended on my part and in return I just don't kill you?" the Widow offered.

"Who would actually think that was a good plan?" Fayne demanded. "If I didn't care if you destroyed the one place I can actually call home, as strange as that seems given I only discovered it earlier today, I wouldn't have come all the way out here in the first place!"

"Ah, my mistake. I thought you had potential. I'm just going to have you killed them but I lack the sympathy to do it myself."

"What does sympathy have to do with anything?" Fayne asked. "And why does me refusing your deal mean that somehow I'm easier to kill?"

"I…well…" the Widow fumbled before just fading out.

"That's one way to avoid losing an argument," Fayne muttered before continuing on.

She proceeded to slaughter everything in the cave with very little inconvenience. She thought maybe she got poisoned at some point when a spider bit her and she started feeling lightheaded but it was nothing all that serious and she'd get a healer to take a look at it later.

The Widow was waiting for her in the very back of the cave.

"How dare you murder all my spiders?" the Widow demanded.

"Seriously?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "I thought we weren't doing that. You're the one who sealed their fate by sending them to kill me, remember?"

"I don't recall promising that I was going to be rational about this," the Widow sniffed, sticking her nose in the air. "Your hunger is far greater than that of the fae that I slaughtered at Castle Yolvan."

"Hunger?" Fayne asked, confused. "Do you mean skill? Is this some sort of verbal paraphasia?"

"No it isn't!" the Widow exclaimed. "I said hunger so I meant hunger."

"Yeah but…in what way? Can you explain to me how hunger has anything to do with it? Maybe…a hunger for victory or something? It still doesn't make a great deal of sense but if I'm reaching then I guess I can see-"

"Oh, never mind," the Widow snapped. "I'm going to kill you now. Or you could kill me, I guess. Not that I care since I'm just going to come back to life."

"I know that fae are immortal and I'm sure you've died and come back a million times but that still strikes me as a pretty unhealthy attitude," Fayne noted. "Though more so for a mortal, I guess. Still, you did hear the part about how I might be killing fae permanently?"

"I don't believe you!" the Widow shouted before she attacked.

Predictably, Fayne defeated her and the weird purple fate thing happened so the Widow was beaten to death by what was probably her own fate and likely wouldn't be coming back.

"Seeing as how she wasn't under mind control at the time and I did warn her, I don't actually feel bad about this," Fayne realized. "Plus she had an obscenely long life anyway."

Fayne headed back to Canneroc. When she entered the inn she was immediately set upon by a jubilant Barten.

"You did it!" he cheered.

"Uh, yes, I did," Fayne conceded. "But how could you possibly know that?"

"Well we weren't all murdered by spiders," Barten reasoned. "So what else could it be?"

"I feel like there is a lot wrong with your logic but, on the other hand, you are technically right so I'm not even sure where to begin arguing with you," Fayne said.

"We owe you our lives which is worth more than all the gold in the world but at the very least we can give you this," Barten said, shoving a bag of money at her. "Thanks again for being literally the best person ever."

Fayne accepted the money with a smile. "I don't know what it is about this place but I really like it. I can even go sleep in my own bed tonight!"

Menri came up to her then. "It's not like I don't appreciate being saved and whatnot but have you bothered to go investigate what happened to my family?"

"Now that I defeated the Widow, can't you do it?" Fayne asked reasonably.

"I could but you already said you'd do it," Menri pointed out. "What's taking so long?"

"You remember that bit about me saving you all? I kind of figured that was more pressing than finding your parents' corpses," Fayne said.

Menri threw her arms up in the air. "Well if that's your attitude then I don't see how this is going to end well."

"If by some miracle they're still alive, I could be the most cynical individual ever about their prospects and it wouldn't prevent me from saving them," Fayne argued.

"Unless you suspected they were spiders or something and shot them the moment you saw movement," Menri countered.

"I…well okay then. I promise I won't do that," Fayne said, at a loss of how to properly respond to that.

\----

The next day, Fayne decided she should probably head out to the Togh farm. Unfortunately, she was quite thoroughly sick of spiders at this point and yet the farm was still infested with them. She quickly took them down while trying to stay away from them since they had the nasty habit of immobilizing her and poisoning her and then entered the farmhouse.

There were dead bodies, all right, but also some spider sacs which looked completely out of place in a home and felt rather wrong so Fayne ruthlessly destroyed them. She was tempted to just turn around and let Menri know that her parents were dead but Menri had already suspected that so she should probably examine the body and try to figure out what happened.

She was hardly a forensic expert but it looked like the first body had some slash marks on it and the body in the basement still had a knife buried in it so that was a pretty easy to determine cause of death. The knife had the initial's CJ written on it because apparently they weren't done with everyone's ridiculous need to personalize their weapons. Fayne could honestly say that she had never felt the need to do that. But then again, she only had about three months worth of memories so maybe she was just as bad before that.

She went back to Menri.

"So I found your parents murdered and a dagger with the initials 'CJ' on it buried in your father's back," Fayne said.

"CJ?" Menri repeated. "I wonder if that's Jayck."

"There's a good chance that it is," Fayne said. "Please, for your own safety, don't confront him if you're alone and just avoid giving him a chance to kill you in general. Even if you're wrong about him and he's completely innocent and the spiders killed your parents with his knife or whatever, him being offended is a small price to pay to keep you safe."

"You make a good point," Menri said. "Which is why I'd like you to confront him about it for me."

"Me?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "Why?"

"Well he's in the town so it's not like it would be a huge inconvenience," Menri reasoned. "And you're plenty strong. You killed the Widow and made it to the farm and back in one piece."

"Not for nothing but Jayck, guilty or not, also made it from the farm here just fine. And he apparently did it without his knife. Though why he'd leave that behind when it's evidence and there's a spider epidemic is beyond me," Fayne said.

"So he's defenseless!"

"Or has more than one weapon," Fayne argued. "Or he managed to get past the spiders unarmed in which case he's probably very, very good."

"It won't take all that long," Menri said persuasively.

Fayne sighed. "Oh, fine."

She didn't know who Cartery Jayck looked like but fortunately the very first person that she went up to greeted her with, "So the savior comes to Cartery. What do you want?"

"You could be a little less condescending to the person who saved you, for one," Fayne said, a little irritated. "Also, I found a dagger with your initial's on it in a dead guy at the Togh farm. Did you kill him? Did you kill his wife? If so, why? Menri seemed to think you guys were friends."

"I can't believe I left that behind!" Jayck exclaimed, horrified. "And I can't believe I didn't notice that until right now. We were friends, you see. But I deserted from the war ten years ago and now Carowyn tried to make me go back? Why doesn't she go off to war if it's such a noble cause and that easy to just head off? Or her husband for that matter?"

"So you killed her and fled instead of just fleeing."

Jayck coughed, embarrassed. "Looking back, I see that I should have just left and not killed them first but I kind of panicked."

"Look, I'll agree that from your story, which is completely lacking in any sort of detail, she was pretty awful for trying to send you off to a war she wasn't willing to fight but that doesn't mean killing them was okay," Fayne said sternly.

"How about I give you a lot of money and you don't tell anybody what happened?" Jayck asked hopefully.

"Look, sooner or later Menri is going to go home and find what happened and I don't trust that you won't kill her for that, too, even when logic dictates that you just leave town now," Fayne said. "And I already told her I found your dagger. This is just a formality, really, so I can figure out why and confirm it was you. It's a little late for hiding things. Now, you can either go to jail or try to escape and I kill you."

"I've always been a 'taking a third option' kind of guy," Jayck announced, pulling out another dagger. "I've already killed two people and even I completely fell to pieces about it and am still struggling with what happened, I am fully prepared to kill a third!"

"Yeah, that's not happening," Fayne said simply as she raised a hand and struck him with lightning. "I should probably go before what passes for the law around here asks any questions about why I just killed a guy. But first, back to Menri."

Menri was still in shock. "I can't believe he killed them just so he could avoid a war!"

"I can't believe he bothered killing them when it would have been so much easier to just sneak off. He wasn't their slave. They couldn't have the law after him and probably wouldn't have bothered trying to hunt him down," Fayne said. "If he was really smart, he could have told them he was going off to fight and then just didn't."

"What happened to him?" Menri asked. "Did you arrest him?"

Fayne coughed uncomfortably. "About that…I was going to but then he was mysteriously struck by lightning and it wasn't my fault and now he's dead."

Menri sighed. "Well so much for that. I knew they were probably dead but I could have handled death by spiders far more easily than this."

"If it makes you feel any better, if Jayck hadn't killed them they probably would have been eaten by spiders given that the house had been infested by spiders," Fayne offered.

"That does literally nothing to make me feel better in any way at all."

Fayne shrugged. "Well, I tried."

\----

Fayne was approaching another village when a man stepped out in front of her.

"I'll kill all of you damn boggarts if I have to!" he cried out before breaking into a coughing fit.

"Are you alright?" Fayne asked, concerned.

The man continued coughing for another two minutes before saying, "Yes, quite fine. Why do you ask?"

"No reason, really," she replied. "But you do realize that I'm not actually a boggart, right?"

The man nodded. "Oh, yes. That was just… a general warning for the boggarts of the world."

"So while I know you're alright, do you mean introducing yourself?" Fayne asked. "And maybe telling me what your perfectly alright coughing is all about? Don't tell me it's allergies."

"Alright I won't even though I think I probably am allergic to boggarts," the man said. "My name is Thaddeus Holn and I'm afflicted with the plague."

Fayne immediately jumped back. "What the hell? You said you were fine!"

"It's not serious."

"It's the fucking plague!"

Thaddeus looked at her oddly. "You know, I've never heard you swear before."

"You've known me for like two minutes," Fayne pointed out.

"You just look far too innocent to do something like that," Thaddeus continued.

"You don't want to know what my body count looks like," Fayne said. "And, strictly self-defense or not, when you've got a body count like I do 'innocent' isn't really the right word. Now hurry up and tell me about your 'no big deal' plague."

"The blood plague-" Thaddeus started to say.

Fayne held up a hand. "Okay, there's just no way something called the blood plague can be considered not really a big deal."

"It isn't, though," Thaddeus insisted. "Sure I keep coughing but all it does is takes away thirty percent of your damage resistance. It could literally kill you if you get in a fight but it's been nonlethal so far as a killer on its own."

"That's oddly specific," Fayne said. "How can you possibly know it takes away exactly thirty percent damage resistance?"

Thaddeus shrugged. "Maybe it's an estimate? Listen, dangerous or not you might want to skip a plague-infested town. If not, Kester Barclay over in the town square might be able to tell you how you can help before you, too, are struck with this illness."

"What town is this?" Fayne asked.

"Didenhil."

On the one hand, Fayne really wanted to avoid this place like, well, the plague. But on the other she might need to come back here some day and if she could try and see if she could somehow end the plague (as unlikely as that seemed) then she'd be in much better shape. Besides, she might already be infected.

Kester Barclay turned irritably when she approached. "By Mitharu, what is it you wa-Oh, hello. Did Thaddeus send you?"

"Did you think I was him?" Fayne asked. "Does he really annoy you that much?"

"Yes, yes he does," Kester answered, nodding. "I keep telling him to take a rest before he gets himself killed but he seems to think the fact that the plague doesn't outright kill means he doesn't need to worry about dropping dead from sheer exhaustion."

Fayne shrugged. "Well, it's his life. Now, I'm a little worried I may have already contracted it so can you cure it? Do you know what's causing it? Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Our healer can cure the plague and she's been doing it regularly but the problem is that the boggarts carry it in their venom and they keep attacking the newly-cured people so they get sick again," Kester explained. "Our healer is running low on cures and the supplies that were supposed to arrive this morning didn't. You might check with her if you're concerned."

"So I can only catch the plague from boggarts?" Fayne asked, brightening.

Kester nodded. "As far as we've been able to work out, yes. And the boggarts have been harassing us here in town because some Jotun have stolen their territory. If you could go kill the Jotun also any boggarts that you find I'm sure the plague would wind down very quickly and once the healer's supplies are restocked we would be past this."

"You know, ordinarily I'd be a bit skeptical of ending a plague by killing people," Fayne said. "But in this case I think I'm just going to go with it."

She went into an inn and coincidentally heard someone mention the name 'Camden.' That was what she vaguely remembered that probable widow in Gorhart saying her husband's name was and so she went over to investigate.

"Ah, a stranger!" Camden said, surprised. "You really shouldn't be here. We all have the plague. Well, I don't currently but I did the other day and I'll probably get it again."

"I will just never get used to being easily spotted as an outsider anywhere except among fae because I'm clearly not one of them," Fayne said, shaking her head. "Listen, did you marry someone named…actually I don't remember. But did you marry someone in Gorhart and leave the day after your wedding to go to war and then just never came back and left her to think she was a widow for three years when she's obviously not and you're obviously fine?"

Camden winced. "Judging by the angry and accusatory tone of that question I feel like I should say no. But, in truth, I did. Her name is Gizela. Why?"

Fayne snapped her fingers. "Gizela, right, now I remember. Look, she sent me to look for you because you just never came back and nobody will tell her anything."

"But I sent her that death notice," Camden protested.

"And somehow I don't think she got it. Or if you did it was obviously a fake. Most probably, it's on the way but they just have so much difficulty finding people to deliver them that yours is still waiting," Fayne suggested. "Either way, you're clearly not dead so you've got a lot to answer for."

"Call me a coward or selfish or whatever you'd like-"

"You're a selfish bastard."

Camden winced again. "You certainly don't pull your punches, do you?"

"Why should I? Your wife deserves better than to be abandoned because you regret your marriage."

Camden's eyes widened and he began waving his hands around emphatically. "Oh, you do not understand at all! I could never regret my marriage to my dear wife!"

"Then…what the hell?"

"It's just that I'm injured," Camden said, gesturing to the bandages that Fayne hadn't noticed before wrapped around his head. "I have nightmares. And I can't sleep. And I have injuries. Best to make her just think I'm dead and she's a widow and she'll either spend the rest of her life alone or I'll force her to become an unwitting bigamist."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Okay, look, obviously things will be hard but she's absolutely miserable without you and she's been worried you're dead so I don't think she'll complain about a little hardship. Why don't you stop being a coward and go home and let her decide what she wants to do with her life? Making decisions for your wife is not an attractive behavior."

"By jove…you're right!" Camden realized. "How did I not see that before?"

"Idiocy, I think."

"I must go home to my wife right away and we can be blissfully happy forever, the unfortunate side effects of my having been in the war notwithstanding!" Camden declared, practically running out of the inn.

"Rude," Fayne sniffed. "Not even saying goodbye. If I'm ever in Gorhart I'll have to see if Gizela will give me anything for my help. I don't care enough to go out of my way but if I'm in the area it will be a nice bonus."

She kept exploring until she found the healer, Astrid Frisk. She just followed the sound of coughing until she found her though Astrid didn't appear sick herself.

"I'm sure you're very ill," Astrid said before Fayne had a chance to say anything. "And yes, I'm sure it's very serious. But I have no more plagueshield and so there is nothing I can do."

"In the interests of making sure that if I ever do get ill I'm not left to languish in sickness, is there anything I can do to get you that plagueshield?" Fayne offered.

Astrid's eyes lit up and she took out a map. "Well if it isn't a miracle! Here, Brother Fallon was supposed to deliver the plagueshield and this is the route he took. If you could find her or at least the plagueshield and bring it to me then we'd be back in business."

"I'll be back, then," Fayne told her.

\----

Ten dead Jotun and countless dead boggarts later, Fayne was reasonably certain that she had solved the plague through sheer violence.

She was trying to find her way out of some ruins when she ran into a sorcerer with a giant floating book. "Oh, you surprised me! What are you doing down here? I see my Jotun have failed in their orders. Did Padaxes send you? Or was it Lysander? Tell me!"

"Who the fuck are they?" Fayne asked.

"They're my rivals. We're all at war with each other. They want to stop me from creating an army of skeletons. Shouldn't you already know this?" the sorcerer asked rhetorically.

"So wait…you're telling me that the Jotun are your protectors and here to keep people who want to hurt you away from you," Fayne deduced. "And as such, the Jotun displaced the boggarts and they caused a plague to hit Didenhil."

"What's a Didenhil?" the sorcerer asked blankly.

"Oh, just die," Fayne said, annoyed. She still waited until he attacked first so it would still be self-defense then made short work of him. "No one that stupid and selfish deserves to live."

\----

When Fayne returned to the town it was the middle of the night and yet Kester was still awake and ran over to greet her.

"You're back! We felt the earth shake and assumed you must have done something to end the plague," Kester said.

"Well that's a rather odd leap to make," Fayne said, blinking.

"Were we wrong?" Kester asked.

"I cannot say that you were, no," Fayne admitted. "It turned out some weird sorcerer was trying to create an army of the dead and two other sorcerers didn't want him to so he got the Jotun to be his bodyguards and you can see what happened. He had no idea what he was doing."

"So you got him to stop?" Kester asked.

"Violently."

"Thank you so much for saving us all. Even though this was a totally non-lethal plague we thought for sure we were all going to die," Kester told her. He gave her some gold. "We owe you all our lives. Or at least our good health."

"What happened to Thaddeus?" Fayne asked.

"He passed out so his family dragged him home and won't let him leave," Kester replied. "It might have been better for the gene pool if he had just been allowed to get himself killed but some people are sentimental I suppose."

"Some people," Fayne agreed wryly.

She went back to Astrid.

"Brother Fallon dead on the road?" Astrid asked rhetorically. "Oh, what is this town coming to? At least you have the Plagueshield."

Fayne stared at her. "How could you possibly know that? Maybe I hadn't even left."

"I…just…do," Astrid said shadily.

Fayne sighed. "Fine, you're right. The Red freaking Legion of all people killed him. I swear, they're like cockroaches and I thought they were mostly confined to Gorhart. How do they even still exist?"

"I don't know," Astrid said. "But the plagueshield, if you please? Maybe this time when I cure the whole town they'll actually stay cured."

"Wouldn't that be nice?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

\----

Wandering around some more, Fayne encountered a gnome standing by the side of the road with a wagon.

"Only one head, thank the gods, I thought my time had come at last," he marveled.

Fayne felt she really should get to meeting up with Agarth before he, too, was murdered by Tuatha who were looking for her but so very bad at it but that sounded interesting.

"Why were you expecting someone with more than one head?" she asked.

"My name is Avicenn Etelle," Etelle introduced. "Fate seems to hate my expedition and to hate me even more since it just won't hurry up and kill me."

"Why do you want to die?" Fayne asked, perturbed.

Etelle shook his head. "Oh, I don't, exactly. It's just really disheartening to see everything that could possibly have gone wrong – save my death or maiming or something – have gone wrong. If I ever doubted that something could be fated not to happen then my doubts would be long gone by now."

"What is your mission?" Fayne asked.

"I've spent the last decade researching this artifact called Shine and Shadow. It hasn't been easy since literally all we know about it is its name and its supposed to be powerful but the templars freaked out and want it. Everyone else died getting it. Could you maybe help?" Etelle asked hopefully.

Fayne crossed her arms. "Didn't you just say that this was probably Fated to never succeed?"

"What's your point?" Etelle asked blankly.

Fayne sighed. "Fine, whatever, if I stumble across your giant monster and find your Shine and Shadow and somehow correctly identify it as such I'll come back and see you. How's that sound?"

"Well if it involves me not coming with you or doing anything then I think it sounds lovely," Etelle said happily. "Thank you, mysterious stranger! If you succeed, I'll give you a lot of money. We might have been underprepared but we were not underfunded."

"Then maybe you should have used some of those funds to make sure you weren't underprepared," Fayne said pointedly.

Etelle shrugged. "Well it's a little late for that now, isn't it?"

There was another man nearby and Fayne decided that she might as well see if he had any pressing business that needed to be attended to while she was there.

"Hello," she greeted him. "This may sound like an odd question but would you like me to do a favor for you?"

The man turned around, looking greatly surprised. He had large red marks on his face but since Fayne couldn't be certain if it was blood or face paint and didn't want to offend him if it were the latter, she chose to keep quiet about it. "Oh, how very kind! As it happens, I have a nephew in town – Thaddeus – and I was so very lonely for such a long time since my wife died."

"Oh, I met him," Fayne said, snapping her fingers. "He's…alive."

"That's good to hear," Holn – probably – said, eyeing her strangely. "I met this wonderful nymph and we were supposed to get married by the pier but there are all these monsters and they must have scared her off. I can't go searching for her because I'd get torn apart. Would you mind killing them all for me?"

"Not particularly but is there some reason why she can't come to you?" Fayne asked.

"Probably monsters," Holn said sagely. "If it's anything else, I can't very well know that until I see her again now can I? Could you maybe also find her?"

"How am I supposed to do that when I don't know what she looks like or even her name and she could be literally anywhere or even dead?"

"With any luck, fate will be on our side and you'll find her in the area in a wedding dress," Holn replied.

"And if fate isn't on our side?" Fayne asked.

"Then I guess this is going to be rather difficult," Holn replied.

"What is a nymph, exactly? Is marrying them even legal? Do they stay in one place even?"

"That's my problem, not yours," Holn replied indifferently.

Fayne sighed and went on her way. She found a corpse and, upon doing the rational thing and stealing everything on said corpse, found that the dead person had completed a mission for the Warsworn prior to expiring and should she ever go join the Warsworn like she had been planning on earlier then she should really give this to them and let them know that the mission had been completed. And possibly that whoever this was was dead if they knew who was going out trying to complete the mission.

Right when she stood up, she saw Agarth hurrying towards her from across a bridge.

Fayne winced and braced herself. "Oh, was this where we were supposed to meet?"

"What is wrong with you?" Agarth exploded. "It's been a month and a half since you told me that you'd come straight here!"

"In my defense, I've been very busy!"

"What was it this time?" Agarth asked rhetorically. "Did you go out and become the outright queen of the summer fae?"

"Actually I saved Canneroc from spiders, Didenhil from the plague, and helped out various other people," Fayne corrected.

"Well none of that is as important as this and I wasted so much time when you clearly only ended up here by accident," Agarth said, annoyed.

"How is this little expedition more important than saving entire towns?" Fayne demanded.

"This could change the fate of the world! Literally!" Agarth exclaimed. "Do you seriously not see what a big deal this is? I would have thought the House of Ballads would have impressed this upon you."

"Let me put it this way," Fayne said. "Imagine, for a moment, that you had no fate or at least were not aware of any fate. Imagine that you were surrounded by everyone else who were convinced that fate controlled at least the larger of their actions and that they might as well not even try because no matter how simple the task is, if they are fated to fail then they'll fail. And if they're destined to somehow do impossible things then it'll happen even if they spend their life in a tavern. Imagine that you're not one of them and you don't remember growing up in the culture that breeds such an attitude. Tell me if you think you'd take this any more seriously than I am."

"You must know that I can't possibly imagine such a thing!" Agarth protested.

"And I can't imagine your mentality, either," Fayne explained. "I'm starting to think that if I really am the sole person with no fate and can't remember ever having had a fate then I'm literally incapable of understanding everyone else. That's a little bit frightening."

"Now you're frightened! But only a little bit? I find this terrifying. But that's what we're here for. Here in the ruins of Dellach we'll see for sure. Who knows? Perhaps you're just as Fatebound as the rest of us but have a very unusual fate," Agarth suggested. "Well now that you're here I guess we can get started."

"You did tell me not to bother coming, you know," Fayne pointed out as they started walking.

"And I also took it back," Agarth reminded her. "Plus I can't even be grateful for you for not coming since you came anyway."

"I don't even get you," Fayne said, shaking her head.

"Yes, I do believe we've already established that," Agarth said, nodding.

"So why did we come to this super special sacred Fateweaving place again?" Fayne asked.

"I'm having trouble diving just where you fit into things-"

"I and the House of Ballads have mostly been operating on a 'I'm not a part of Fate at all' theory," Fayne reported.

"Well I'm not ready to concede that just yet, especially since we're only feet away from answers. If I can't read your fate here then you have none. Be careful, though. Despite being the perhaps the most important place ever it's infested by Jotun and other fun things," Agarth warned. "Be very quiet if you don't want them all to swarm us at once."

Fayne considered. "Well it would certainly save time…"

Agarth glared at her. "Quiet."

The moment they were inside, Agarth seemed to forget that he had wanted them to be quiet and started waxing poetic about the place. "This place has been abandoned for so long that some think it's merely a legend despite the fact that it's right here out in the open. Some Fateweavers are kind of thick if you ask me. Still, beggars can't be choosers and it takes a special kind of idiot to want to join our order these days."

Fayne wisely refrained from asking why he joined then.

"I say, it that Shine and Shadow?" Agarth asked innocently as Fayne pulled a pair of daggers from a Jotun corpse.

Fayne stared at him. "How could you possibly-"

"Fateweaver," Agarth interrupted. "Just because you have no fate doesn't means these don't. And besides, really, how else would you be able to identify them? I don't know why you're looking, though, because Fate doesn't seem to want to cooperate with you."

"Well…thanks, I guess," Fayne said.

"Please tell me you weren't out looking for some fancy daggers instead of meeting with me," Agarth pleaded.

"It was on the way and clearly I found you before the daggers."

Agarth just sighed heavily. "Now, to see the whole tapestry of Fate. I've always wanted to see this but I never did because of…reasons."

"Ah yes, 'reasons.' Reasons are why I do anything and everything," Fayne said knowingly.

"None of us can change the horrors that are in store for us though many have tried. Even when it seems like there is literally no way you can fall into lava if you never go anywhere near a volcano, Fate finds a way. It's truly remarkable. If you truly can change Fate, showing you what is Fated could cause all sorts of problems but we'll just have to see what happens," Agarth said. "You know, after all those years of hiding in a bottle it's good to see some action again if only one last time."

Fayne blinked at him. "One last time? What are you talking about? You don't have to go retire after this, you know. You can go see all the action you want. It's fine. You're really not all that old."

"Oh, if only," Agarth said wistfully.

"I don't have time for this," Fayne said. "Tell me what you mean if you want otherwise I'm choosing to ignore this."

Agarth said nothing for a little while longer and they fought their way through the ruins.

"Hey, is that a two-headed creature?" Fayne asked, surprised. "I guess that gnome wasn't seeing things after all!"

Agarth, meanwhile, stood frozen. "I've seen this moment. I'm sorry, my friend, but this is as far as I can take you."

Fayne started. "Wait, what?"

Agarth didn't answer, just strode purposely towards the creature.

Fayne rolled her eyes and followed him, determined to get some real answers once this was over. Through a special combination of stabbing it, setting it on fire, and shooting lightning at it Fayne eventually killed it.

Agarth was staring at her as if she had done something impossible.

"What?" she asked self-consciously. "I've done much harder things than this. Don't tell me I went and changed Fate again."

"You did, actually," Agarth said, shaken. "I was supposed to be brutally murdered and used in that warrior's stew."

Fayne made a face. "Ew. Why would you look up your own death when you were powerless to do anything about it? Sounds rather morbid to me."

"You try having the power to see what's going to happen to you and everyone you know and see how long you can resist peeking," Agarth challenged, crossing his arms.

"But wait…" Fayne breathed, realizing something very important. "You were going to die right here and we haven't even done what we came here to do?"

"I did try to get Arden to take you," Agarth defended himself. "And I didn't know for sure that this would happen before I examined your fate."

"But you didn't tell me what to do if you died beforehand! And I don't know the first thing about examining Fate! This whole thing would have gotten you killed and been a ginormous waste of time!" Fayne complained. "You kind of suck, you know that?"

"It's not my fault this was my fate," Agarth pointed out. "And I knew that you didn't have a fate but I had never realized that you could change the fates of others. It makes sense, I suppose, since in my fate I would have been here alone and died but you having the power to be here too allowed me not to meet my own fate. It's just so hard to believe."

"I don't think it is."

Agarth rolled his eyes. "Again, we've already had this conversation. Oh, you are so much more powerful and dangerous than I would have thought. And…did you say you saved Didenhil from a plague? I seem to recall that it was supposed to be completely wiped out by said plague. I'll have to examine the tapestry again and see if that was a different plague or it's not gone or if they have a new fate. I hope they're not without one, too!"

"It might be good for them," Fayne opined.

"Well of course you'd say that," Agarth said. "Come on, we really need to get to that tapestry."

Eventually, they reached a room with a stone circle in the center of it. A beam of light hit the stone circle from who even knew where.

After they cleared the room, Agarth approached it reverently. "The Destiny Stone. With it, the fae taught the Fateweavers the mysteries of Fate."

"And they in turn taught everyone else to have no sense of personal responsibility as its all some mythical force's plan for the universe?" Fayne asked, unimpressed. "I should have known. Thanks for that, fae."

"Hey, it really helped us and it's not their fault the world is run that way," Agarth claimed.

"It's entirely possible they believed that but it doesn't mean it's true. I don't see how anyone is helped by knowing there's nothing they can do to change what is in store for them. It's enough to drive someone to nihilism," Fayne said disgustedly.

"Place your hand on the stone and let's see what happened."

Shrugging Fayne did just that. The moment her flesh made contact, the stones slid around like parts of a puzzle. She picked up the small stone that was revealed to her.

"The Codex of Destiny," Agarth said as she lifted it up. "Wow, you subvert the natural order and screw Fate so much that even the Destiny Stone came apart at your touch! This is getting eerie. You can use your great powers for good or for ill."

"I've mostly been making the world a better place so far since I'm not a terrible person," Fayne said.

"But is your plan better than Fate's plan?" Agarth wondered.

"Well if Fate's plan was really that an entire village die from a nonlethal plague because of one idiot sorcerer and his bodyguards…then yeah, I think my way is so much better it's not even funny," Fayne replied.

"No matter what else happens, I feel like I should thank you for saving my life," Agarth said. "I-What's that?"

Fayne turned to look. A group of Tuatha had appeared. Most of them rushed at them but one stayed back.

"Purge the abomination in the name of Gad-" the leader got out before being utterly gutted by Alyn.

"Hey, that's the woman that said she didn't kill Arden," Fayne explained to Alyn.

"I didn't!"

"I assume the abomination is me because I have no fate," Fayne concluded. "How rude."

Working together, the three of them quickly dispatched the assassins.

"Honestly, it's like they're not even trying," Fayne complained.

"Hi again," Alyn said, waving. "I just wanted to let you know that I think the Tuatha have some way of tracking you you might want to look into getting rid of. I'm glad we're all on the same page now about you having no Fate. I'm ultimately looking to end this war and save the world but we'll get to that later. Right now, I'm here to tell you that that codex you found is literally incapable of being read by a mortal because it's fae magic and not an actual language. They use lorestones since they have no written language. Normally I'd say go to the fae city Ysa but they don't like unexpected guests so we'll work up to that. For now, come find me in the House of Ballads. That's a good place to meet, isn't it? You're the king and there are plenty of friendly fae to get us started. Bye!"

With that, she ran off.

"Busy woman," Fayne said, shaking her head. "I still don't know if I believe we used to be best friends. I do like how competent she seems to be though."

"Well I don't trust her," Agarth said. "And I'm annoyed that she's right and her solution seems to be a very sound one. So basically do exactly what she says but don't trust her at all. After all, she's a dokkalfar and we all know what they're like."

Fayne glared at him.

"Uh, present company excepted, of course," Agarth added hurriedly.

"I cannot even believe that you are racist-"

"I am not! They're just a sneaky people!"

"Not helping your case here. But I don't have much of a choice to work with you because most people don't know about me and you seem very helpful. But seriously, I am very disappointed with this new revelation," Fayne said, frowning. "And after I saved you from being stew, too! And so help me, if you tell me I'm not like the others I will hit you."

"I won't, I won't!" Agarth exclaimed. "Listen, now that Didenhil isn't going to be destroyed anymore go meet me there and I'll see if I can find a way to see how the Tuatha are tracking you and get rid of it."

"Sounds good to me," Fayne said. "But I've got my eye on you."


	10. Chapter 10

Etelle looked dismayed when she returned to him. "These are Shine and Shadow?"

"…What?" Fayne asked. "Yes, I did recover them and yes I do have them. In my pack. What are you even talking about? You can't see them."

Etelle looked confused now.

Fayne sighed and pulled out the daggers. "Here."

"Now, as I was saying," Etelle continued. "The Templars back in Adessa will think that I am a fool for bringing back simple daggers and not an artifact of great importance."

"Well they are very nice daggers and who knows what other properties it won't be your problem to discover they possess?" Fayne asked rhetorically. "Besides, they didn't send you out to retrieve artifacts of great importance generically, now did they? They wanted you to bring back these specific artifacts and you will and so they have no business being upset with you. Except maybe for losing the rest of your team."

Etelle sighed. "If only the templars would see it that way!"

"Are the templars really that petty and stupid they'd blame you for the fact that the artifact they know nothing about isn't what they wildly guessed it could be?" Fayne asked skeptically.

Etelle hesitated. "I wouldn't say 'petty' or 'stupid' exactly…"

Fayne sighed. "Well good luck with that, then."

Etelle gave her some money and off she went.

She was merrily killing her way through all the Ettin in the area when Holn ran up to her.

"You did it! You found my bride! Did you see the sexy way she slaughtered that Ettin?" Holn asked, star-struck.

Fayne took a step back, suddenly quite uncomfortable. "Uh, no offense Holn but I'm not going to marry you."

Holn blinked at her. "You? Well no offense to you either but I wouldn't want that!"

"But I'm the one who killed that Ettin."

"No, no, I saw my lovely bride do it with my own eyes!"

"Yeah, that's impossible since it was me," Fayne argued. "And does is strike you as at all odd you don't appear to have a name for your bride? Or that she could have been 'frightened' away from meeting you because of some pests when she could take out a full-grown Ettin like I just did?"

"Well…I…" Holn broke off. "You're right! That's not my bride! That's a filthy leanashe! Can you go kill it for me to preserve the memory of my bride?"

"I was probably going to kill it when it attacked me anyway in a moment but…you realize there was never any bride, right? Just a leanashe who was going to kill you. What's to preserve?" Fayne asked reasonably.

"Oh just do it and let me revel in my cognitive dissonance in peace," Holn snapped.

Sighing, Fayne took out the leanashe.

"Thank you so much for that," Holn said gratefully. "I guess I'm going to go live with Thaddeus in Didenhil after all. In the meantime here, take my wedding ring."

Fayne held up her hands. "Okay, hold on, guy! Just because I killed your killer non-nymph fiancé doesn't mean that I want to-"

Holn twitched. "Why do you keep thinking I want to get married?"

"Oh, I don't know," Fayne said sarcastically. "Maybe it was the fact that you literally got engaged to some weird creature whose name you didn't even know at the drop of a hat and you won't stop talking about how lonely you are. And you want to give me a wedding ring!"

"It's a reward for helping me and, no, my hand is not a part of that reward," Holn said frigidly. "I expect you to keep it with you always or at least store it in your house or something and not sell it like a normal reward because this isn't just a normal reward. It's my wedding ring. It has far too much sentimental value and I'm trusting you not to pawn it."

Fayne made a face. "Well if I can't even sell it without being a terrible person then can you just keep it?"

"No. And I also need you to go find a charm of my wife's that I left lying on top of her grave and some Ettin stole," Holn told her.

"So demanding," Fayne complained but she set off anyway.

When she returned with the charm, Holn gave her what appeared to be all the money he had and said she could sleep in his home whenever she wanted. It was a nice gesture but also sort of creepy so she quickly left.

\----

Fayne returned to the House of Ballads and took a moment to revel in the adulation of her fae subjects before going to find Alyn. She was attempting to convince one of the fae that she had the Codex of Destiny but, since actually Fayne had it, she only had limited success.

"Ah, here you are!" Alyn exclaimed. "I was starting to think that you would never show up."

"Really?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "It's only been like two days."

"Well I know you didn't come straight here."

"I came mostly straight here," Fayne said. "Seriously, you need to lower your expectations about my punctuality. I've kept Agarth waiting for months at a time before."

"Yes but that was Agarth and he's obviously a lot less interesting than I am," Alyn reasoned.

"Yeah, lower those expectations down right now or you're going to drive yourself crazy waiting for me," Fayne warned.

"This is Glianel, loremaster of the House of Ballads," Alyn introduced. "Give the Codex over to him and let's see if he can do anything with it. I doubt it, personally, but it won't hurt to try."

"I know who King Sagrell is!" Glianel exclaimed, highly insulted.

Alyn stared at her. "I'm sorry. Did he just say that you were King Sagrell?"

"Oh, did you not know that?" Fayne asked innocently.

"I had heard that King Wencen was displaced for cowardice and the mortal Sagrell took up the throne but since they refuse to acknowledge people outside of their roles there really wasn't any way for me to know it was you," Alyn said defensively. "Though perhaps the fact that the Maid was changing the telling and you changed it right back should have been some sort of a clue."

Glianel held out his hand for the codex and Fayne gave it to him. "Why would a codex reveal itself to you?"

"Uh, well, I was over at the Theater of Fate and Agarth told me that I should touch it so he could see what my fate was and it sort of broke so I took this and left," Fayne said. "I'll concede that it's pretty odd, really."

"Oh, what is this nonsense?" Glianel burst out.

"What nonsense?" Fayne asked him.

"It says that someone is going to come along and change Fate and grant a permanent death to the fae and I don't even…it's nonsense. Nothing but nonsense," Glianel said firmly. "Therefore it must all be lies because I don't like what it says."

"Not for nothing but…remember the Maid of Windemere? And how she kept changing the Telling? And how I accidentally ended up changing the Telling by stopping her? And how, with her prismere, the only way I could have done that was by having no Fate myself to bind me? And how everyone is giving me grief because I probably permanently killed a bunch of people by not having any skill in dispellment? And that's how I became your king in the first place?"

Glianel coughed, embarrassed. "Oh, right. That. Well I guess this could be genuine after all. But I still don't like it and it's creepy and I don't want anything to do with it. And besides, I can only read a little bit of it anyway so you really should take it to the High King in Ysa."

"Well thanks anyway," Fayne told him. She turned to Alyn. "Now what?"

"Now we go to Ysa to see the High King. Unfortunately, he doesn't want people cluttering up his nice fae city and killing him would be quite the coup for Gadflow so we'll need to get permission from the oldest living mortal, Nyralim, to see him," Alyn said.

"How old is the oldest living mortal?" Fayne asked.

"I'm not sure exactly but he's surprisingly older than the fae," Alyn said. "He's also a giant talking tree. Kind of weird, I know. And he, like most people who have had dealings with me, can't stand me. Something about me betraying him or something, I don't even remember. I'll pop up again later on but you'll probably do better on your own. I don't think you were involved with the Nyralim incident but then again who can say? Certainly not you. And even if you were, you have amnesia now so I'm sure it doesn't count."

"Oh great," Fayne deadpanned.

"Here's where you go," Alyn said, showing Fayne the spot on the map. "Go ahead, take your time with this if you want. I'm not actually waiting this time."

"I just know this is a test!"

\----

Test or not, Fayne was promised that it was perfectly alright to go do other things instead of going to meet with the giant talking ancient tree and so she decided she might as well go look up the Warsworn since she had been told she could join and had to deliver the message from that corpse.

She just sort of wandered into their Keep and nobody tried to stop her or ask for any identification despite how heavily armed she was so she couldn't say that she was favorably impressed from the start.

There was an old guy standing a few feet away from the entrance so she decided to walk up to him first.

"A commendation from Odura, huh? Well that will get you in the front door but you'll still have to survive your first mission before you can be more than the hired help," the man said.

"Well that doesn't sound very appealing. And I got the impression from Odura that you guys were literally willing to take anybody you were so desperate for bodies," Fayne said. "I had to slaughter the whole Red Legion to get the damn commendation in the first place!"

The man raised an eyebrow. "Really? Because we've been having a bit of a problem with them here and-"

"Oh, never mind," Fayne snapped. "How did you even know that I met him, much less that he gave me a commendation?"

"Well you came up to me, didn't you?" the man asked rhetorically. "I'm Tine Delfric. I'm in charge. If you wanted a mission board quest thing I'm not the guy to talk to. So I figured that you were here to join up, and if you were serious you'd have the commendation, or you were here to try and assassinate me and you don't look that stupid."

There was only one thing to say to that. "But why Odura specifically? Is he literally your only recruiter?"

"We're not so desperate we need more than that, not yet," Delfric said. "Listen, there's a war going on and any chance for heroics was lost long ago."

"Not according to the House of Ballads where I performed all sorts of feats of heroism and became king. Or Canneroc where I saved them all from being eaten by spiders. Or Didenhil where I killed enough people I stopped a plague. Or-"

"Okay, okay, I get it. But there's no heroism to be found with the Warsworn so it's good you're getting that in elsewhere," Delfric interrupted. "Hirelings like yourself can make a good living standing guard."

"I'd rather stab myself in the eye," Fayne said honestly.

"Well there's also a road patrol leaving soon. Traders on this one road keep getting attacked so wander the road awhile and hope that whoever is attacking is stupid enough to attack you but also weak enough not to kill you," Delfric said. "Do something interesting and maybe one day you, too, will get to join the lowest ranks of our order."

"I can see why they don't put you in charge of recruitment and only send people here when they're fully committed," Fayne said.

Before she left she decided to talk to some of the other people in the Keep to see if anything interesting was going on. She approached one man and he groaned. Not a good sign.

"Oh, stop gawking. Sure there are grander sights than Shielding Keep but it's home," the man said defensively.

"Oh, I wasn't gawking," Fayne assured him. "And I wouldn't. I don't actually think I've seen a grander keep than this before."

"Have you seen any other keeps before?" the man asked.

"I'm not entirely sure so probably not," Fayne replied.

"Well that's alright then. I'm Idwold Freward. If you're looking to join up with the Warsworn talk to Tine Delfric," Idwold said.

"I just did that two minutes ago and you were looking right at us," Fayne pointed out.

Idwold shrugged. "Well I can't say that I was paying the most attention in the world now can I? Anyway, if you complete any of the tasks on the quest board then – Warsworn or freelancer – talk to me and I'll pay you."

"I should probably talk to you anyway and give you this," Fayne said, digging into her pack and pulling out the note from the corpse she found earlier. "This guy apparently finished your Ettin quest. But then he died."

"In that case we don't have to pay him and certainly won't pay you for finding his body," Idwold said, taking the note. "Ah, but here he said he didn't even kill all of the Ettin!"

"I killed all the Ettin in the area though, my track record being what it is, I'm sure they'll bet better or something or more will come to the area. Are Ettin fae?"

"I'm sure I don't know," Idwold said. "But I'm just going to take your word for it that you killed them so take this money."

"That's oddly trusting," Fayne said. "I think I'll have to remember that and take a look at your quest board."

There was only one quest up and it apparently was reposted. It turned out that if nobody did the contract then every five days they kept reposting it until it annoyed someone enough to actually do it. In this case, Fayne was supposed to kill a bunch of trolls in Haxhi. She couldn't promise the posting wouldn't need to be reposted another five times but she'd look into it. And even if someone else also killed the trolls, there would always be plenty for her to kill.

Fayne went off to go find the man she was supposed to bring to Warden's Bridge in Didenhil for the start of their patrol. He was in a healer's home standing worriedly over an ill woman.

"The plague still?" Fayne asked, surprised. "I thought I fixed that."

"Oh, it's not the plague," Astrid said. "They've just all got the flu."

Fayne explained their mission to her fellow recruit and he looked relieved.

"Paid work?" he asked rhetorically. "That's great. The gold's running low and Mother's not doing too good."

Fayne winced. "Oh, don't say that! You're tempting Fate."

"If my fate is to die doing this then I don't see how me saying something or not is going to change is," the man said reasonably.

"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you," Fayne said. She let the man leave first and then turned to the ill woman. "You know, I feel bad. I do. Take this just in case."

"Thank you," the woman said, surprised. "But what exactly do you-"

"Sorry, got to go. Warsworn work," Fayne interrupted, running off.

She met up with a group of Warsworn that just happened to include Ost Odura.

"Done recruiting for now?" she asked.

"I'm never done recruiting," Odura said. "So if I spot someone that looks like they are competent-ish and isn't already a member of our order, I'm going to need to break away from the group for a minute. I'm surprised it took you this long to make your way here. I gave you that commendation more than three months ago and I know this group only contains hirelings. Surely if you were still a hireling after all this time, you'd just give it up as a bad job."

"Actually," one of the other hirelings spoke up. "I've been a hireling for five years now and I have to say that it is one of the most fulfilling-"

"Oh, shut up," Odura snapped.

"Well, I had to go become the king of the House of Ballads first," Fayne explained. "That seemed a little more pressing as they were actually under attack and in a state of some emergency and things seem to be okay here."

"For now, yes," Odura said. "But if people were prepared for emergencies they wouldn't really be emergencies, would they?"

"I don't know about that," the same hireling said. "After all, if you know that a flood is coming – or a Tuatha attack – then maybe you can try to prepare for it but you can't prevent it entirely and-"

"One more word and I'm throwing you out of the order," Odura warned him.

He wisely shut up.

"Now, we're here to investigate the missing travelers. Just basically wander around and hope you see something," Odura instructed. "We'll meet up in a little while."

The group split up and Fayne dutifully investigated rocks and footprints and basically learned nothing. When she got to what she vaguely thought might kind of be the meeting spot, only Odura was there waiting for her.

"Oh good, I'm in the right spot," Fayne said, sighing in relief. "But wait, where is everyone else? Did they get lost? I totally didn't get lost so they have no excuse. Should we go looking for them or something? Am I early? Or am I late and you had to wait around for me?"

"Actually…" Odura trailed off, looking awkward. "They all died."

Fayne's eyebrows shot up. "All of them?"

"Yeah. I was just waiting for you. They were picked off one by one and it turns out we've got Niskaru back here," Odura said.

"I was gone for maybe five minutes!" Fayne protested.

"The Niskaru strike fast and now we have to go investigate the source of it and wipe them all out," Odura told her.

"What's a Niskaru?"

"Niskaru are the demonic creatures straight from hell who want to wipe out all life," Odura explained. "We Warsworn stand against them but we haven't had to in quite some time. We should really go deal with this, just the two of us."

"Are you sure that's the best plan?" Fayne asked uncertainly. "I mean, I know that I'm amazing and I have faith that you're pretty competent if they put you in charge and you want to do this but…seriously? Let's go back and get reinforcements."

"It's too late for that."

"Not really. We don't know that they're launching an attack right now or anything. It wouldn't take very long," Fayne said.

"I'm going and if you want to get paid and have a chance to get promoted you'll go, too," Odura said stubbornly.

Fayne sighed. "Oh, alright. But I didn't really plan on killing any minor demons today."

Somehow, Odura seemed to know exactly where the Niskaru would be coming from which Fayne found terribly odd and a bit suspicious.

At last, he stopped before an entrance. "Okay, the patrol's done. Here's your pay. You can make your way back on your own or come with me to kill all the Niskaru and maybe make Pledgeshield."

"Maybe?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "You want me to face down demonic creatures and who even knows what else and you can't even guarantee I'll get promoted?"

"Tine Delfric hates promoting people so quickly," Odura confided. "He thinks it sets a bad example for all the rest. And to be fair, when this kind of thing happens all the hopeless ones who haven't done anything deserving start pestering him for a promotion because of 'seniority.' Besides, we might not even find any Niskaru here and then you wouldn't even deserve a promotion."

"I might deserve one for being willing to face down a Niskaru," Fayne suggested hopefully.

Odura sighed. "Just come on, will you? Brigand's Hall is a thieves' den, just so you know, so there's going to be traps everywhere."

"Just like whenever I go into any building that isn't a home or an inn," Fayne said, sighing.

"Hey, how about I put you in charge, new recruit?" Odura asked suddenly. "I need to think and I can't both think and walk in front."

"Then maybe you shouldn't be leading at all…" Fayne suggested tactfully. "Oh, right, war and a shortage of men."

And so Fayne ran around looting things, getting hit with traps she couldn't be bothered to avoid, and eventually came across a group of people.

"What's this?" Odura asked, finally shaking himself out of the stupor he'd been trailing after her in. "Bloody mages and not Belen's Testament, either."

"What's a Bhelen's Testament?" Fayne asked curiously.

"They're a death cult," Odura explained. "They worship a god of death and believe they are saving people by killing everyone. It's rather terrifying how quick they are to massacre everyone. I have no idea how they manage to not kill each other long enough to recruit. Or how they recruit anyone when they kill everyone they meet. Just…their logistics makes no sense at all. But this isn't them. These people must have powerful chaos magic to summon and control Niskaru."

"Chaos magic?" Fayne repeated. "Now you're just making things up."

"I'll tell you what. We survive this and I'll buy you a drink and tell you all about it," Odura promised.

Fayne winced. "Oh, now you had to tempt Fate, too!"

Odura didn't answer and merely attacked the mages. Fayne joined in and soon the mages were all dead. Odura looked pointedly at one of the Niskaru and took out his sword and Fayne could only watch in horror as the other Niskaru very slowly approached him and impaled him.

With Odura out of the way, it was up to Fayne to single-handedly defeat them both. Careful not to let one of them get behind her, she did so and ran up to Odura who was still breathing if only barely.

"How could you not see that coming?" Fayne demanded. "It was moving very, very slow."

"If…if you saw it…coming then wh-why didn't…you stop it? Or at least…warn…me…?" Odura asked. But then he died and so Fayne didn't have to answer that very pertinent question.

Instead, she continued on and eventually heard some sort of mage identify himself and his fellows as the something weird starting with an F.

"The Ferengi?" Fayne asked, puzzled.

"The Fahrlangi," the mage corrected, summoning a giant Niskaru.

It was a little bit more complicated to kill this one but she ultimately was able to beat it to death with its own fate. She grabbed everything in the room, including some weird thing she didn't know what it was, and headed back to the Keep.

"Well, hireling?" Delfric asked her. "How goes the patrol? Or did you choose not to do it. If you just skipped it then I can't promise that another opportunity will come knocking on your door."

"Oh, no, I went," Fayne said. "But everyone but me – including Ost Odura – died horribly. They were killed by Niskaru who were summoned by some people calling themselves the Ferengi, I think. It was really weird."

Delfric stared at her. "Then…no offense but how are you still standing? Did you flee like a coward?"

"You mean 'like a sane person when faced with demonic hellbeasts'?" Fayne corrected.

Delfric nodded. "Yes, like that."

"I did not. I killed all the Niskaru and the Ferengi who were there and then I came back here," Fayne explained.

"But…you're only a hireling!" Delfric burst out, unable to believe it.

"Yeah, but that's just because I joined up all of five minutes ago," Fayne pointed out. "Technically speaking the weakest of all people who dream of becoming a Warsworn and someone who can decimate armies would both have to start off as a hireling. You look at people with my rank and decide that we must be weak but actually I just killed all of the Niskaru there without breaking a sweat. And Odura promised me he'd strongly consider making me a Pledgeshield if I went with him to kill the Niskaru but he died before he was able to do it."

"Well then let me make you a Pledgeshield," Delfric said. "Fayne, you're a Pledgeshield."

Fayne shrugged. "Sweet. I really love how everyone keeps just automatically believing my version of events with no proof."

"Are you lying?" Delfric asked sternly.

"No but you can hardly just take my word for that, can you?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

"Actually, I think that I can," Delfric replied.

"I should probably tell you I found this weird thing and it might be important or it might just be some modern art," Fayne said, taking it out of her pack and showing it to Delfric.

He took it reverently. Perhaps he was an art fan. "This…this is the Heart of Sibun. Eagon won this centuries ago. It should be locked in our Ancient Vault."

Probably not art then. She would have asked who this Eagon was but he seemed to think she should already know and she didn't want to expose herself as uninformed especially if it was something really basic. "Clearly your Ancient Vault isn't particularly secure."

"Clearly," Delfric agreed grimly. "Go to Helmgard keep and work with Grian Shane to figure out who managed to rob us and why and if we need to kill any more Niskaru. I would have liked to have sent Ost on this task but since he's dead I might as well send the newest and most inexperienced of our order instead."

"Shouldn't something as dangerous as a Niskaru summoner or whatever this is be destroyed instead of just put into storage?" Fayne wondered. "I mean, in what possibly situation could you see yourself needing to use the Niskaru and summoning them being a good plan?"

"You'd be surprised who might think that was a good idea," Delfric said absent-mindedly. "And we can't destroy it. It's been declared a historical artifact. You know how it is."

"I…okay then," Fayne said, mystified. "I'll get going to Helmsgard."

\----

She was walking along, hoping she was going in the right direction, when she came across man.

"You, there, did the Warsworn send you?" he asked hopefully.

"I guess that depends," Fayne said. "This clearly isn't Helmsgard Keep-"

"Oh, no, this is nowhere near it," the man said. "Here, give me your map and I'll point it out. Right there."

"Why does everyone always assume I have a map?" Fayne wondered.

"Because only an idiot would travel without one," the man answered.

"As I said, this isn't the Keep so if you're here to destroy some trolls and there was a note on the quest board about it then yeah I guess I was technically sent in that the notice was reposted and I agreed to do it."

"Good to know you, then," the man said, shaking her hand. "My name is Declan Malus. My companion Jory was killed and I've been here for about a week. There were more trolls than expected and they were fiercer than I anticipated, too. I'm severely injured so I hope you can take them all by yourself."

"Somehow I doubt that will be a problem," Fayne told him.

"We were expecting rock trolls but it's actually mountain trolls. Good luck!"

She had killed just taken out her fifth troll when she ran into a gnome.

"I'm afraid you've caught me at a bad time," the gnome told her. "The famed hospitality of the gnomes may be missing today."

"Famed hospitality?" Fayne repeated, surprised. "This is literally the first I've ever heard of such a thing."

The gnome stared at her in horror. "Well now I really can't let you leave without experiencing it but now's really not the best time."

"Why don't you tell me what's going on?" Fayne said persuasively.

"My name is Stellen Reitan. I'm a surveyor from the east. As a surveyor, my journal is my most precious possession and I literally cannot get by without it," Stellen began.

"And, let me guess, you lost it."

"I didn't lose it," Stellen said indignantly. "My friend Horace Despero wanted to borrow it and he went off into a cave and I haven't seen him or it since."

"Oh, I get it," Fayne said, snapping her fingers. "He must have stolen your journal and taken off and you'll never see him again. He'll either sell your journal outright or use the secrets to further his own career. That really sucks."

"He didn't steal my journal!" Stellen cried. "Why would you even think that?"

Fayne shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe something about how 'Horace Despero' is the most obvious fake name that I have ever heard in my life. It is just seriously ridiculous."

"It really is his real name," Stellen tried to tell her.

"I'm sure it is," Fayne said patronizingly.

Stellen twitched. "No, my problem, you see, is that I think my friend is probably dead and my journal lost but I know if I go in there I'll just die, too, and my journal isn't quite worth my life. If somebody else could go and find out what happened and bring my journal and, miraculously, my friend back to me then I'd be eternally grateful. And monetarily grateful just in case I'm not being clear."

"Well I don't think you're going to find anything but if you promise that if I go in this cave and make a good-faith effort to find him and he's not there then you'll still pay me anyway then I'll go look for him," Fayne offered.

"Oh, thank you so much!" Stellen exclaimed. "The cave's right over there. I've pretty much been camped right outside of it waiting so unless there's a back entrance he literally couldn't have snuck past me and that's part of why I'm so certain that he's still in there and probably dead."

Declan had wandered over at some point during the conversation so she went over to him.

"How many trolls was I supposed to kill? I got five of them," Fayne said.

"You were supposed to kill all of them," Declan said.

"And I'm supposed to wander around hoping I haven't missed one for how long now?"

"Actually, I'm pretty sure there were just the five," Declan admitted. "So I guess you're done then. It's amazing what you've managed to accomplish."

Fayne decided not to mention that it hadn't really taken all that much to kill the trolls because she was sure this guy with his dead friend wouldn't appreciate her thoughts on the matter.

"Since the trolls are now dead and I don't have to look at that damned unfilled quest anymore, I can safely return home with my honor," Declan said. "If you hadn't come along I probably would have made no effort to kill the trolls again or get any adequate medical attention and would have just died out here so as not to embarrass myself. You can have Jory's sword hilt. It was very important to him so please don't sell it. I know you never met him but it has sentimental value. You'd best hurry up back to Shielding Keep before someone else tries to do this quest, sees that it's been completed, and takes the credit."

"Are people really that horrible?" Fayne asked.

"I would absolutely do just that," Declan replied. "Well, later then."

Fayne went into the cave and was quickly set upon by some walking skeletons. They were never that challenging to deal with but they also never seemed to attack on their own. She pressed further into a cave and eventually found a cage with a body and a tattered journal lying right next to it. While it was kind of a weird idea that someone would be captured and tortured or at least held until they died of starvation or something and take the time to write in a journal. But then, if they suspected they were going to die it could be the only way anyone would ever know what would happen to them.

She skimmed it and found out it didn't belong to Stellen's friend but to some bounty hunter who thought this girl wanted to destroy a 'foolish cult' he had been hired to get rid of but she actually betrayed him to the cult and they were doing some weird ritual.

Fayne had just turned away from the cage to look for Despero's body when he was attacked by a leanashe. She vaguely wondered if this was the 'Keska' that the bounty hunter had fallen for. Granted she didn't appear to have any legs and the guy had clearly mentioned having a weakness for, well, legs but Holn had thought a leanashe was a nymph-bride so they apparently had some sort of mind-control powers.

She killed the thing that may or may not be Keska and then found Stellen's journal on a nearby corpse. Well, at least he probably hadn't been captured before his death.

When she made her way back to Stellen, he somehow knew that she had his journal with her.

"My journal!" he cried exuberantly. "I trust this wasn't too difficult to obtain."

"Actually, I think you trust that it was or you have no excuse for standing around fretting instead of going in yourself," Fayne corrected.

"Well…I only meant for one of your skill," he tried.

"You had no way of knowing how skilled I was when you sent me in," Fayne pointed out, crossing her arms.

Stellen awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, yes, but I figured you were probably more skilled than me since you clearly have more weapons than me. And if not, I'd lose nothing if you died and I didn't have to pay you. But you didn't die! So, what happened to Horace?"

"Don't think I didn't notice you asked about that stupid journal first," Fayne said. "And your friend is dead. So I guess I was wrong about him wanting to rip you off."

"I'm glad you realize that now."

"So…?"

"Oh, right," Fayne said. "He's dead."

"Oh, that sucks," Stellen said, sounding remarkably not broken up about this. "Well, here's your gold. Goodbye."

"Are you two even friends or not?" Fayne demanded. "You spent all this time trying to convince me you were so worried and wanted to know if he was okay and now you don't even care."

Stellen shrugged. "It's a dangerous line of work and he up and died with my journal in an area I could never, ever get it back from. You've always got to take the circumstances into account."

"I am judging you so hard right now."


	11. Chapter 11

Fayne arrive at Helmgard and found a handsome blonde man lounging on a throne and looking absolutely miserable. She had to admit, all these thrones everywhere was giving her a somewhat icky vibe.

"Please tell me you've come to rescue me from my boredom!" he pleaded.

"Are you Grian Shane?" Fayne asked. "I was told to come here and inspect an ancient weapons vault for some reason."

"Ah, yes, I see now. An artifact was stolen from the vault and turned up in Lorca Vane?" Grian asked rhetorically.

"I must have the most expressive face ever," Fayne mused, shaking her head.

"Well this is certainly very serious and potentially world-ending. I'm going to send Gwyn Anwy and only Gwyn Anwy to guard it. You might want to go, too, to investigate or something but I'm sure you'll have better things to do than stand around there all day," Grian told her.

"And she won't?" Fayne asked.

"Nah, she's a bookish sort so I'm sure this will be fun for her," Grian said dismissively.

"And you're sure you don't need more people?"

Grian shook his head. "I have the bare minimum amount of faith in Gwyn."

This was not a promising start so Fayne didn't expect much once she headed off to the vault.

Gwyn was waiting for her outside. "An artifact from our vault was stolen and they send one single…I'm sorry, what rank are you?"

"I just got promoted from hireling so I think…Pledgeshield, was it?" Fayne asked.

Gwyn nodded. "One single Pledgeshield! In what universe is that enough?"

"Actually I feel like I'm kind of demeaning myself by doing this," Fayne said. "I mean, sure, Warsworn seems pretty cool and all but I am way better than your average initiate. I went on one mission so far and I was the only one to walk away. And granted most of them were hirelings but we had a recruitment guy of some higher rank with us, too, and he was also killed by Niskaru."

Gwyn raised an eyebrow, impressed. "Well then! Niskaru! This is looking slightly less ridiculous. But one person? Really?"

"That is just what I was thinking!" Fayne exclaimed. "I suppose we have to make do but it's times like this I really wish I had a bunch of followers. Unfortunately my two best prospects apparently have 'lives' or something stupid like that."

"I would kill for some followers," Gwyn agreed. "Let's go investigate the vault then, shall we?"

They entered the building and quickly saw that the inner door was just hanging wide open.

"It's like they're not even trying to hide what they did," complained Gwyn.

"Well at least they shut the door to the outside," Fayne said, trying to comfort her. "That might have been really awkward otherwise."

Gwyn didn't have a chance to reply as they were quickly attacked by mages and were distracted for the next several minutes dealing with them.

When it was finished, Gwyn held up a key triumphantly. "I found this in the leader's hand. I don't know if it's the actual key to the vault or just a working replica but either way it's not good. They've probably been here countless times. We're lucky that we came when we did and that they didn't bother with a sentry."

"How did you know it was the leader's?" Fayne asked. "We didn't exactly speak with any of them."

Gwyn shrugged. "Well he was noticeably more powerful than them – he levitated! – and he was dressed nicer. I suppose he could have just been a show-off but it doesn't really matter. Besides, wouldn't the leader be more likely to have such a key?"

"Well you have me there," Fayne admitted. "Now what?"

"Now we go back to Grian Shane and tell him what happened. He won't like this but he'll have to listen," Gwyn said.

"Why would a man clearly so bored and action-starved as Grian Shane be so reluctant to believe any of this?" Fayne asked mystified. "I mean, we've had plenty of mages to kill and we'll probably come across some more Niskaru sooner or later."

Gwyn shrugged. "Honestly, it could just be that he can't possibly image any dusty old relics being of interest to anybody and so he can't manage to take it seriously. I'll meet you back there."

"Or…we could go together," Fayne called after Gwyn as she ran off. "Seriously, what is it with no one ever wanting to go anywhere with me?"

Fayne actually hurried somewhat in heading back to Helmgard in that she went straight there and didn't do any other random quests that came her way but when she arrived she was still met with Grian looking quite grim. "So I jailed Gwyn."

"…Why?" Fayne asked blankly, wondering how he even had time to do that before she had arrived as well. "If she did something jail-worthy why would you even send her off with me in the first place?"

"Well I didn't have anybody else to go and it seemed like it would be irresponsible sending you alone," Grian explained.

"But…not sending me with someone you suspect of committing some sort of crime?"

"The vault was hers to look after. With all of her other duties, how could she fail to notice that someone was breaking into the vault when she wasn't around?" Grian asked. "It just doesn't make sense. Therefore, we're just locking her up and hoping that an answer will present itself."

"You're some kind of idiot, aren't you?" Fayne asked, horrified.

"Maybe a little," Grian said, unconcerned. "But that's neither here nor there."

"But what about that key that Gwyn found that's either the real key to the vault or an exact replica thus proving that there is another possibility that doesn't involve Gwyn being guilty?" Fayne asked.

"Hm. She never mentioned any key. Clearly her withholding of exculpatory evidence is yet more proof that she's guilty," Grian theorized.

"And you didn't, oh I don't know, find the key on her when you searched her?" Fayne asked.

Grian blinked at her. "Search her? Why would we search her?"

Fayne wordlessly gaped at him for a moment, unable to understand how the idea of searching prisoners was such a hard thing to grasp, and then just turned to go.

"See if you can find this key for me!" Grian called as she walked away.

Fayne hurried off to the dungeons. "How is it possible for someone to be that stupid? How did he even get the job?"

Gwyn managed a startled laugh. "You must mean Grian. Well, that's a bit complicated. He certainly looks the part and he can be very charming. Not to mention that, for the most part, all our real leaders and capable soldiers are out on the front lines. We still have Tine Delfric, of course, but he's too old to risk and to valuable to replace. He's literally the only member of our order to carry the highest rank and you can only bestow a rank on someone if you are at least equal to that rank. If anything happened to him before he found a worthy successor, we would just literally lose that rank forever."

"That's kind of stupid."

"They promoted Grian Shane," Gwyn pointed out. "This war is…difficult. So tell me, do you actually believe I did it?"

"You would have to be extremely incompetent if your own people attacked you instead of just trying to kill me. Or without having them not be there when I arrived. You got there before I did so you had plenty of time to get them out of the way and it's not like you didn't know I was coming," Fayne said. "And no, I don't happen to believe you're incompetent."

Gwyn let out a sigh. "It's too bad we don't have more as competent as you."

"That's a common complaint," Fayne said modestly. "But tell me, why didn't you give Grian the key?"

"Key?" Gwyn repeated blankly. Her eyes widened. "Key! I should have given him the key! I…kind of forgot. I was overwhelmed with his stupidity. But honestly he probably would have taken the fact that I had the key or at least a key as further proof of my guilt anyway so it's just as well."

"Yeah, he did outright say hiding evidence that could prove you innocent makes you look guilty," Fayne said.

Gwyn just rolled her eyes and handed the key over. "Take it to this master locksmith I know. He should be able to tell you if it's the real thing or who could have forged a fake. In fact, he might have been the one to do such a thing. He's really good, the best I know of."

"Will do," Fayne said. "Um…have fun being locked up, I guess."

Gwyn shuddered. "I'm hearing all sorts of highly alarming things from the guards and people just happening to walk by about how if anyone angers Grian they'll end up here with me. I mean, I already knew that Grian was an idiot who wanted to just ignore this and hope it goes away and that nobody ends the world with our highly dangerous relics but that just makes him sound corrupt on a whole different level."

"I'll try to hurry."

Fayne stopped by to let Grian know what she was doing and he told her the gnome was named Tarion but that since Gwyn was probably responsible it was probably a trap.

No one was in the blacksmith's shop so Fayne felt no guilt about entering his lab. Neither, evidently, had all the hostile mages who were shouting something before turning their attention to her.

Fayne was in the middle of loudly killing her last mage when a tentative voice called out, "Hello? Are they gone?"

Fayne glanced over as she killed the mage to see a gnome suddenly standing in plain sight.

"Well now they are," she said, annoyed. "But the sound of fighting just a moment ago should have warned you that the task wasn't done yet. And besides, what made you think I won?"

Tarion shrugged. "No reason, really, but my leg was kind of cramping up. Anyway, thanks a bunch for saving me. I don't even know what they were after. Something about killing me for the Warsworn? That didn't make any sense as the Warsworn are an order of warriors and would just go out and kill me themselves instead of outsourcing the task, especially with the kinds of jobs they get these days. And a simple 'you're fired!' would have sufficed!"

"Well, as far as I know you aren't fired," Fayne said. "And those weird mages probably wanted you dead so we wouldn't be able to find out what you know about this key." She took the key out and handed it to him.

"What would they want to know about this key that I crafted to expertly be a duplicate of the original key?" Tarion asked blankly. "It's pretty straight-forward. Don't tell me that it didn't work! It's my greatest achievement and I already spent the money!"

"Uh, no, it worked just fine," Fayne assured him.

Tarion furrowed his brow. "Then what could this possibly be…about…Er, Pledgeshield Fenan DID have permission to get the super important key duplicated, didn't she?"

"I'm not saying that she didn't," Fayne told her. "But I am suggesting that maybe next time you hold out for someone a little more important than a Pledgeshield. And maybe get a signed permission slip from someone important. But not Grian Shane. Something tells me that he'll sign anything."

"I'll, uh, keep that in mind," Tarion said bemusedly.

This time, to avoid the strange psychic-ness everyone she met seemed to possess, Fayne blurted out what happened the minute she was in earshot of Grian.

"Pledgeshield Fenan, you say? Stole my key and had a locksmith copy it and gave it to the enemy?" Grian felt the need to recap as though he had not gotten that information just moments before from Fayne herself. "We must confront her at once."

Fayne sighed. "And by 'we' you mean 'me' while you stand here doing nothing, right?"

"Actually, she should be in the Keep so I'll just have my guards go get here while we both stand around doing nothing," Grian corrected.

Fayne brightened at this.

"Of course, she'll be put in the cells so if you could go find out what's going on from her that would be great," Grian added.

"You want me to question Livia?"

"Who is Livia?" Grian asked, confused. "I want you to question Pledgeshield Fenan."

Fayne didn't have an answer to that so instead she just went off to do as she had been told.

"What's going on?" Gwyn called out. "Fenan just got arrested. Please tell me she did something other than annoying Grian."

"She stole the key and had it duplicated by Tarion," Fayne explained before stepping in front of Fenan's cell.

Fenan hung her head. "I know that I can never make up for what I've done but I intend to try."

"What's the point in that if you can't succeed?" Fayne wondered.

Fenan narrowed her eyes. "Do you want me to try and atone or what?"

"Honestly, I don't really care as long as you're open about why you took the key and who you gave it to," Fayne said.

"Some guy named Elbin Meroch. He said he was with the Alfar army but, strangely, whenever we saw anyone else from the army he always used to duck down and hide until they left," Fenan said. "He told me that the Warsworn had the power to end the war but didn't because they liked getting paid."

"Everyone likes getting paid," Fayne agreed. "But after ten years enough is really enough and maybe if so many people weren't dying out there they wouldn't need to keep recruiting people and the existing Warsworn wouldn't have to worry about getting paid."

"I can't believe she fell for that," Gwyn said, clearly judging her.

"I believed what I wanted to believe," Fenan said miserably. "I know it's no excuse-"

"It really isn't," Fayne cut in. "And that's really no way to live your life. For instance, I want to believe that this isn't shaping up to be a headache that I'll have to solve to get promoted so I can move and do…I don't quite remember off the top of my head what I was supposed to be doing but I'm pretty sure it's important and involves fae. However just because I want this to be true doesn't mean Gwyn's not stuck in here, Delfric isn't too important to do this personally, and Grian isn't an idiot."

"And pardon me for asking," Gwyn added, "but if you really think so poorly of our order and think we would deliberately prolong a war that has the potential to destroy all mortal life then are you really sure you should be a member? When this is all sorted out and I'm cleared of any wrong-doing I shall recommend that you be thrown out."

"I don't even know why she hasn't been thrown out already," Fayne said. "That's a really good idea. I'll probably be second-in-command or something by then after having saved everyone so I'm sure that my support will mean a great deal."

"Come on guys, don't you feel you're being a little harsh?" Fenan asked pleadingly.

Fayne and Gwyn exchanged a look. "Nope."

Fayne found Grian listening at the top of the stairs. "Given this turn of events, you are to find this Meroch character and extract from him what you can."

"If you were listening to everything that was going on then why did I have to interrogate her instead of you doing it yourself?" Fayne asked. "Also, please don't be too mad that I kept calling you an idiot."

Grian shrugged. "Everyone is entitled to their opinion. And I guess I should probably let Gwyn out since I have work for her to do. Meet up with her when you're done dealing with Meroch."

Fayne decided to just wander around in the general area of the Alfar camp and eventually came across a man who asked, "Can I help you with something?"

"That depends. Are you Meroch?"

The man choked but said nothing so that was probably a yes.

"So they found your key," Fayne said, trying to be persuasive. She wasn't quite sure why she would need to be persuasive since she wasn't trying to convince him of anything that wasn't true. Was he supposed to not believe that anybody found his key? How would they even know about it without having found it or at least found out about it?

Meroch winced. "Oh, no! Mad Harst, that's H-A-R-S-T, over in the Rathir Customs House is going to want to know all about this! Seeing as how he's the one responsible for this and all."

Fayne blinked. "Well, that was quite accommodating of you. Thank you."

\----

Fayne had never actually been to Rathir. Well, given that she was a dokkalfar there was actually a good chance that she had been there. But she didn't remember it so it didn't feel like she'd been there so it probably didn't count or something.

It seemed kind of ridiculous to travel all the way out to Rathir, which was nowhere near Helmgard just to go sort out this stupid key misunderstanding but clearly nobody else was willing to do it and so the task fell to her.

She stopped long enough to ask where the Customs House was and then went straight there. She didn't see anything suspicious there so she headed down to the basement and saw a weird grate. When she got closer to it, it said, "What costs the lot by sea?"

That made literally no sense at all to her assuming it was even a riddle and not a question about customs stuff she didn't know so she just decided to ignore it. "I know about the Meddler."

Apparently just the fact that she knew about the Meddler, not that the Meddler was causing problems or had been detected or that she was going to do anything about the information, had her buzzed in. The guy said something about how he thought the meddler and the gnome had been taken care of which sounded like killed so Meroch should probably watch his back.

Unfortunately, she was quickly attacked by those Ferengi mages on her way to go find Harst. She wondered if she had been ordered killed, if the mages just had no self-control, or if they hadn't been told that she was coming and were trying to guard against intruders.

There was a man waiting for her at the end of the tunnel who she could only assume was Harst. "Congratulations on making it this far. But it's kind of pointless since Lord Besin took everything and flown to Eamon's Isle."

"Wait, flown?" Fayne asked. "How is that even possible?"

"I actually meant just that he left," Harst corrected himself. "He's no longer here. No actual flying involved as far as I know."

"Oh," Fayne said, disappointed. "Well why are you waiting around here for then?"

"I, well…Now!" Harst shouted and a Niskaru rose up to attack her.

Fayne took that as a 'I don't know' and a 'You make a good point.'

She managed to kill them all regardless and found a way out of the customs house. She was just looking around when someone called her name. That was a pretty unusual occurrence in and of itself and so Fayne turned and saw Gwyn hurrying towards her.

"What are you doing here?"

"Grian told me to meet you here and then I had to come here anyway. I found some Ferengi mages-"

Gwyn cleared her throat. "Actually, I think you mean Fahrlangi cultists."

Fayne shrugged. "Whatever. They said some Besin guy went to the aisle of Eamon."

Gwyn's eyes widened and she looked horrified. "We must set out immediately! I know a ship's captain in the city! Hopefully he's not already hired because we have to go right now!"

"You know what any of that means?" Fayne asked, surprised. "It sounded like just meaningless gibberish to me."

"Yes and no doubt to most of the order, too," Gwyn said grimly. "But unlike them I actually pay attention to history."

"Will I still be able to see this quest through if I don't know any of the history?" Fayne asked.

Gwyn frowned. "Well, yes, technically but don't you want-"

"Not really. Let's just go," Fayne said.

"Take this token from Delfric," Gwyn said uncertainly. "And this fellow Warsworn standing beside me should send news to him of what we've discovered. And I guess we're going then."

They headed to the pier with Gwyn still shooting her looks as if to make sure she really didn't want to hear all the super fascinating backstory. Maybe if she were a career Warsworn and not just picking up a new hobby she might have to.

"Hello, Captain Gonthorn," Gwyn said to one of the men standing there. "I know that with the siege and the planned attempt to break said siege no one is supposed to take a boat anywhere but can you take us to this one island?"

"Normally I'd say no to such an outlandish request but since it is the Warsworn asking I don't see why not," Gonthorn replied. "Let's go."

Fayne immediately began planning to namedrop Warsworn whenever she needed to be taken anywhere suicidal.

\----

Once the boat took them to the island, they explored and found a ruin infested by more evil mages. They killed them, naturally, and then Gwyn went over to one of the walls.

"This is it!" she said excitedly. "All of Besin's evil plans are written in our own recorded history!"

Fayne stared at the wall trying to see it. "Your history is a mural. And Besin's hidden plans are in a mural. Of your history."

"Isn't it obvious?" Gwyn asked, wide-eyed.

"It's a guy with a hammer fighting a…I'm going to be generous and say it's a Niskaru. But it really looks more like a dragon," Fayne replied.

"It is a tale of the mage Fahrlang who sought to free a Niskaru Lord from his prison to end the world or something like that," Gwyn began.

"I know that I don't know you very well, Gwyn, but I feel like you're normally a bit more…precise than that," Fayne said delicately.

Gwyn shrugged. "Well succeeding would have undoubtedly ended the world and it's not like he explained his motives. He failed because Eamon forged that hammer for his son Eagonn and it stopped the spell and returned the Niskaru Lord to its prison."

"So, wait a second," Fayne said slowly. "Are you telling me that a hammer stopped a spell?"

"Yes," Gwyn said confidently. "Or so the story goes. Perhaps the hammer stopped the man casting the spell."

"And why could it only be that hammer?" Fayne pressed.

"Because Fate says so."

Fayne threw back her head and groaned.

"That…basic truth doesn't normally carry such a reaction," Gwyn said slowly.

"You don't even want to go there," Fayne said flatly.

"I know about the hammer, of course, but who even knows where it is. I hope it wasn't in our Ancient Vault that got ransacked and the bad guys don't have it," Gwyn fretted. "Anyway, you go see Tine Delfric and see if he has any thoughts and I'll go to Ironfast Keep. You meet me there."

"All these delays," Fayne complained. "It's really a good thing that Besin evidently isn't in any hurry to end the world or anything."

"It probably isn't even possible," Gwyn said. "Still, best not to risk it with the fate of the world at stake."

They left the ruin and headed back to the ship.

"Are you ready to go?" the captain asked. "Make sure that you are. I don't think we'll ever return here."

"Why not?" Fayne asked. "I mean, I can't say that I really have any pressing need to come back but why couldn't I if I wanted to?"

"I…don't know," the captain replied.

So the pair returned to Rathir, then they went their separate ways and Fayne once more found herself in front of Tine Delfric.

"As soon as I had heard what happened, I dug up everything I could about Besin," Delfric told her. For once, she understood how he seemed to know everything before she said anything since Gwyn was keeping him informed.

"Okay, is any of it something I have to know to kill him?"

"Do not be so hasty," Delfric admonished. "The soldier who stop stops to survey the field wins the battle."

"Unless he is killed while standing around like an idiot looking at things," Fayne countered. "And nothing's wrong with just electrocuting or setting on fire all of your enemies anyway."

"Besin was kicked out of the Orbocant for trying to use Niskaru to end the war. We figure he's probably still on that," Delfric told her. "We need to get the Mystic Hammer. I don't feel like doing it myself but only Oathblades and higher are allowed into sacred places like Eagonn's Tomb."

Fayne twitched. "If you're about to tell me that we're out of luck because of something this stupid-"

"Don't worry, I'm not," Delfric interrupted. "I'm kind of in charge here so I can do what I want. Pledgeshield, I hereby promote you to Oathblade. Have at it."

Fayne blinked. "Oh, well, I…Thanks. That's certainly one way to solve a problem."

"I didn't end up in charge by being stupid, you know," Delfric said pointedly.

Fayne held up her hands defensively. "Well you can't blame me for wondering."

She entered the tomb, killed everything in her path, then headed off to the third Warsworn fortress in the area, wondering vaguely why this couldn't be a little more geographically convenient. Killing everything in her path was beginning to get a little tedious and she resolved to brush up on her 'kill massive amounts of people at once' spells.

"So the hammer is broken?" Gwyn asked, disappointed. "That is disappointing but perhaps not surprising. It was forged at the Hall of the Firstsworn and I think it must be reforged there."

"Why?"

Gwyn frowned. "What do you mean 'why'?"

"Why do you think a hammer that has to be reforged must be reforged at the place it was originally forged?"

"Well it couldn't hurt," Gwyn said, not really answering the question.

"But why can't we just forge it right here?"

"Because I said that that's not what we're going to do," Gwyn said a little testily. "Plus I'm not really sure what to do next so I need the time to think. The Hall isn't far, just over a canyon. I'm going right there. Meet me there."

"Funny coincidence. I'm going right there, too. Why can't we go together?" Fayne asked.

"Because if we do you'll probably keep pestering me with stupid questions," Gwyn said pointedly. "Now are you going to go first or shall I?"

Fayne sat down. "By all means."

She waited twenty minutes and then headed out after her.

Gwyn was waiting for her and looked a little apologetic. "I'm sorry for that. It's just…the last time I saw my mother was the day she set off for these ruins."

Fayne immediately became very uncomfortable. "Oh, I'm sorry. Are you, uh, sure that we're at this point in our relationship where I need to know this?"

"I thought maybe she was alive. Though given that she left years and years ago that's obviously impossible. Anyway, sacred passage leading to forge is this way," Gwyn announced.

"Sacred passage? Are you even kidding me?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

"I'm not," Gwyn said. "And I only pray that Eamon was not, either. He's the only one to have ever walked these halls and so we only have his word what's going on here. And it was all centuries ago anyway so much could have changed."

"So we fix the hammer then go kill Besin and his Niskaru. Got it."

They might have been the first humans to come there, theoretically, since Eamon but there were certainly plenty of fae wandering around just itching for a fight. Did animal fae come back? If they did maybe that explained their complete lack of any sort of self-preservation skills. The troll was an unpleasant surprise but then she rather thought her ability to beat it to death with its own fate was an unpleasant surprise for it.

As Fayne jogged past yet another corpse, Gwyn stopped and gasped out, "Mother, no…"

Fayne paused and turned around. "Okay, how do you even know that that's your mother? It's pretty decomposed by now."

"I recognize her clothing," Gwyn said defiantly.

"It looks like pretty generic armor to me."

"Well she has to be around here somewhere, doesn't she?" Gwyn asked reasonably.

Fayne shrugged. "I guess but that doesn't mean that this is her."

Gwyn glared at her. "Do you want to search every inch of this place until we've found all the corpses then lay them side by side to compare them? Do you really want to do that?"

"I…no. Let's just go," Fayne said quickly.

"That's what I thought."

They kept going but didn't make it very far before Fayne felt like she ran into something and was pushed back. Gwyn was behind her but didn't seem to think anything was odd about this as she also ran into the thing and fell back. Just in case it was a fluke, Fayne attempted once more to continue along the path but was once more rebuffed.

"We could keep running at this like idiots or we could do the sensible thing," Gwyn said.

"I vote we go for the sensible option," Fayne said.

Gwyn nodded. "Good plan." She turned and started to walk away.

"Hey, wait, where are you going? Do you know of some other way?" Fayne asked.

Gwyn stopped and turned back around. "No. But neither of us are Eamon and so neither of us are fated to be able to pass. We might as well just give up and prepare to welcome our new Niskaru Overlords."

"Or we could not," Fayne offered. "I mean, at the very least try to reforge the hammer somewhere else. But wait, let me try something first."

She tentatively approached the door and somehow managed to avoid getting shoved back this time. Once at the door, she did the same hard-to-explain thing she always did to beat opponents to death with their own fate and the door flew open.

"Yes, clearly giving up was the only sensible solution," Fayne deadpanned.

"Ho-how did you do that?" Gwyn demanded. "How? I don't…how?"

Fayne shrugged modestly. "I'm kind of immune from Fate or something. I'm still working on that one. It's no big thing."

"You may have saved us all with your freakish fatelessness," Gwyn said, awed.

Fayne winced. "Glad you're appreciative. Could you maybe not call it 'freakish'?"

"I will consider it," Gwyn said solemnly.

Suddenly a voice rang out though there seemed to be no source for it. "Hey, the Forge is over here if you want to fix that hammer."

Gwyn and Fayne glanced at each other and then decided to follow the instructions. Fortunately, it appeared not to lead them to a trap and they found the forge pretty easily.

"I can feel the forge whispering to me the ancient secrets of how to remake the hammer," Gwyn said, her eyes lighting up. "Just let me-"

"Uh, no, let me," Fayne cut in.

Gwyn looked surprised. "Why?"

"Because," Fayne said, stepping closer to the forge and taking out the hammer pieces, "a lot of innocent fae died so that I could be a better blacksmith."

Gwyn hesitated. "I hate to ask-"

"It's best you don't."

Fayne worked diligently in silence until the hammer was complete.

"See how it shines," Gwyn marveled. "I kind of want it. But I know that I am not worthy and, more to the point, I think we want the immune from Fate person fighting this battle. This truly legendary. And since you didn't appear to actually shine it yourself, maybe it's inherent and this will be easy to clean."

"I shall call it Mjolnir," Fayne said proudly.

"You can't just go around naming it," Gwyn objected. "It already has a name. It's the Mystic Hammer."

"Yeah but that's a stupid name and I reforged it and am the only reason we were even able to get in here in the first place so I'm going to call it whatever I want. And what I want to call it is Mjolnir."

Gwyn sighed. "It's not worth arguing about. Look, we have to go to Cloudcrest mountain and destroy the…well, the emanations of the Niskaru Lord."

"Oh, is that all?" Fayne asked skeptically. "And just what do those look like, pray tell?"

"I don't know," Gwyn admitted. "But surely the emanations of a Niskaru Lord won't blend in with the scenery. The Niskaru will have to enter this world slowly so if we just keep attacking these emanations we should be able to stop it."

"What about killing it?"

Gwyn started to laugh before she realized that Fayne was serious. "Yeah, there's no way we're going to be able to kill it. It's a Niskaru Lord. And if you were at all interested in your Warsworn history you'd understand what that means. Or if you were a Warsworn for longer than a week. Anyway, as long as we stop it from materializing here we're good. Now I'm going back to the Keep and getting some reinforcements meet me at the Mountain."

"Will do."

Needless to say, Fayne was in no hurry and was actually impressed by how much she managed to dawdle without actually getting involved in any other quests on her way there.

Still, she hadn't managed to procrastinate so long that it made any sense that everyone was waiting for her at the base of the mountain.

"This is what I like, this fighting stuff," Grian declared. "None of that boring investigative stuff."

"You know that we're only here because we did all the boring investigating right?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

Grian nodded. "I do but that's what you're paid for."

"I don't think I've gotten paid at all yet," Fayne said. "Or at least for anything but the quest board."

"Well you've only been here for like a week," Gwyn pointed out. "Give it time. So it looks like Besin created his own route and didn't think to seal it behind him so I guess we'll just follow him in."

While Fayne hadn't been thrilled at the idea of getting reinforcements, the fact that there were dozens of Niskaru milling about and getting far too close for comfort meant that Gwyn was probably right to fetch them. And if you can have more than one person taking on the bad guys then why not? The mages they found were much easier to take down than even the standard Niskaru she was getting annoyingly familiar with.

They were nearing the top, or so Fayne hoped, when out of nowhere Gwyn said, "We'll hold them back. Do what you came to do."

"Hold who back?" Fayne asked, confused. "Are there more enemies coming? Because if they are I'm better at mass slaughter than any of you and-"

Grian cleared his throat. "I think what Gwyn means is that none of us want to actually ace Besin or the prospect of his Niskaru Lord so we'll stay down here and safely slaughter what we find and you go be the big hero. Less glory to go around so you'll win, too."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Oh, of course."

"Hey, I got you this far," Gwyn said defensively. "But that door, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, make the fateless one do everything," Fayne complained.

There was a weird sort-of tree thing in front of her with what appeared to be a giant gold ring on one of the branch-ish things. That was probably the emanation of the Niskaru Lord because it's not like Fayne could think of what else it could be. She had to set it on fire four times before it was destroyed which was another good indicator.

Then, alone, she continued up the mountain.

After she took down six of the pieces of Niskaru Lord (and got an appropriate roar of what might have been frustration and might have been pain), she saw a pillar of golden light up ahead of her. That was never a good sign. As she rushed towards it, she saw some people who were probably using the light to summon the Niskaru Lord. Or the light was the result of the summoning. Either way, it had to be stopped.

"What are you doing, you fool?" one of the Alfar asked haughtily.

"Besin?"

"Of course I'm Besin!" Besin exclaimed. "Why are you getting in my way? I'm trying to end a war here."

"I'm all for ending this war before I have to do something stupid like start caring about it," Fayne assured him.

"Well then too bad for you because I put a lot of time and effort into summoning a Niskaru Lord into our world and now I'm going to have to start all over," Besin sulked.

"What makes you think a Niskaru Lord would listen to you and just kill all of the Winter Fae and then just passively go home or die?" Fayne asked. "And what makes you think that killing the Winter Fae would even do any good at all given that they just come back constantly?"

"Uh, well, actually that's a point I hadn't really considered," Besin admitted. "And now that you bring it up I feel like I really ought to have since it's a pretty obvious one. But I've come all this way and hate to be wrong, I'm just going to kill you and keep doing what I'm doing. I figure either it will all work out the way I want it to and I'll be a hero or I'll die horribly and so none of this will be my problem."

"You are such a selfish bastard," Fayne accused.

"I'm trying to end the war here," Besin countered. "That means anything and everything I do for whatever reason is not only completely justified by selfless to boot."

"Selfless?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "Even if this wasn't a stupid plan and would actually work and no one ever gave you any credit for it, it wouldn't be possible for it to be selfless as presumably you still get something out of this interminable war ending."

"Well if you put it like that then nothing is ever selfless ever!" Besin protested. "Even if you sacrifice yourself for no reward and no recognition you can at least be secure in the knowledge you are doing the right thing and so are technically getting something out of it!"

Fayne shrugged. "I have a bit of a cynical bent, I'm afraid."

Besin threw a bolt of lightning at her and the battle was on. Those reinforcements Gwyn had brought (and Gwyn herself for that matter) would have been very appreciated and Fayne had to sneak two healing potions during the battle but eventually she managed to kill them all. Even if she had to cheat using her beating people to death with their own fate powers.

The moment Besin died, a deep voice spoke up.

"Well I guess that's a bust," it said. "I'll get out eventually, I know, but I was rather hoping for today. Too bad the mage was so incompetent. If only I had another, better helper. Hint hint."

"You sound kind of like a fae," Fayne noticed.

"Hint hint."

"I'm sorry, are you trying to get at something?"

"How would you like to take orders from a voice and kill every Warsworn ever? They'll all know to attack you on sight somehow even if you leave no witnesses. It's like they have Niskaru servant sensing powers or something," the voice said.

"Why would I want to do that?" Fayne asked, confused. "I mean, I've spent all this time trying to get in good with them and then to stop you. To side with you now would just make this whole thing rather pointless."

"Not entirely pointless," the voice argued. "After all, I was going to destroy the world and now I can't. Yet."

"But I should help you achieve your goals and get out sooner so you can destroy the world," Fayne concluded. "Yeah, I happen to like the world. Sort of. I like living, at least."

"I have goals that don't involve the short-sighted destruction of the world!" the voice claimed. "Like the destruction of the Warsworn. And I'll give you an increase of ten percent to your physical damage, plus one to your might abilities, and an increase of five percent to your fire damage. That's way better than the oddly specific increase of ten percent critical hit against Niskaru, an increase of six percent in stun damage, and pus one to your might ability. I mean, when are you even going to have to fight a Niskaru again anyway? Take my offer."

"I'm not taking orders from a disembodied voice and that's final," Fayne snapped. "And I'd have to be the most short-sided idiot in the world to think this is a good idea."

"Gadflow's doing it," the voice complained.

"I don't know who that is and I don't care."

"You'll regret this!" the voice called after her as she walked away.

Gwyn was waiting for her. "I saw everything!"

Fayne paused and looked at her strangely. "Everything?"

Gwyn nodded. "Yes, everything."

"Including the battle I just had?"

"That would be a part of everything, yes," Gwyn confirmed.

"Then why in the world didn't you help me?" Fayne demanded.

"You looked like you were fine," Gwyn said unrepentantly. "Besides, we talked about this. Given that only reforging the Mystic Hammer in the Hall of the Firstsworn could defeat Besin-"

"Which is far from a given and acting on some rather paltry assumptions," Fayne muttered.

"And given that if Besin wasn't stopped the world would have ended, I think we can safely assume that the world was fated to end here," Gwyn said seriously. "So really, I would have been useless anyway."

"Actually I think I've learned that if I'm around people who are bound by Fate aren't bound by Fate, at least while I'm there," Fayne corrected.

"I couldn't take that chance. The very existence of the world depended on it," Gwyn said seriously.

Fayne sighed. "Oh, whatever. I succeeded."

"Also, I'm glad that the order doesn't have to commit mass suicide trying to stop you after you sided with a Niskaru Lord."

"I'm glad, too," Fayne replied. "But really, after all we've been through, did you really think I would?"

"Well I was a little concerned when you bothered to engage it at all but I suppose you're just the engaging type," Gwyn said. "Now come on, let's go meet up with the others."

Fayne stared at her. "What's this? No 'I'll meet you there.'"

Gwyn grinned at her. "I was thinking about it but then I decided that you earned this."

"Wow, I actually get to walk with someone when we're going to the same place at the same time!" Fayne gushed. "That almost never happens. It did one time, I mean, but he was planning on ditching me by dying halfway through before I even learned anything and I really would have appreciated that information ahead of time."

Delfric was waiting now that all the fighting was done. Well that was certainly one way to live as long as he had.

"So you saved us all and the world and didn't turn on us. That's more impressive than anything anyone else has ever done. Or at least since Eamon's time. As such, I'm making you a Truesworn. There's only like two of us around so this is a really big deal," Delfric declared grandly.

"Oh, wow, thanks," Fayne said happily. "Does anyone care I became this super high and super rare rank after less than two weeks?"

"Normally I'd say 'yes' but you did kind of stop the Niskaru uprising for us so I can live with it," Grian announced.

"By the way, is this the highest rank or something? Did I just skip a few ranks or is it literally you are inducted into the Warsworn as a Pledgeshield, prove yourself as an Oathblade, and then that is literally as far as your career is going to advance?" Fayne asked.

"Well usually it takes years of study to reach Oathblade," Gwyn pointed out. "But basically, yeah."

"There is only one rank above a Truesworn and that is a Castellan which is the leader of a Warsworn Keep," Delfric said.

"Oh, so does that make Grian a Castellan then?" Fayne asked curiously.

"No."

"I'm confused then," Fayne admitted.

"Well that's okay. I don't think you'll be sticking around long enough for me to die of old age or something so you can get promoted anyway," Delfric said. "Oh, technically the Ancient of War is the leader of all Warsworn but they're always just the most important Castellan so it's really the same thing. Well…congratulations again!"

"Huh. King of the House of Ballads and Truesworn of the Warsworn. Not bad."


	12. Chapter 12

Fayne was just walking around, trying to remember where she said she'd meet Alyn and Agarth, when a man standing on the side of the road beckoned for her to stop. Starting to feel like she was never going to make any progress towards figuring out this whole no fate thing, she did.

"Are you hear to ask for my help, sell my something, or try to kill me?" she asked bluntly.

The man blinked at her. "None of those, really! My name is Grim Onwig and I'm just a simple Traveler. This is Star Camp, one of our three bases, and I just know that you didn't come here by accident. You want to join, don't you? Please tell me you want to join!"

"Actually I only vaguely know about the Travelers from this rather traumatic experience with this woman who told me the grossest Traveler saying and I had no idea there was a camp here so this was a total accident," Fayne said. "And if you say 'or Fate' then this will not end well."

Grim coughed. "I wasn't going to say that. I just really think you should join."

Fayne stared at him. "But why? I mean, you know literally nothing about me except I've heard of the Travelers and am here."

"Let me answer that question with one of my own," Grim said. "Why wouldn't you want to join the Travelers? We get to explore lots of neat places and everyone thinks we're awesome unless they're boring law enforcement types and you can get rick pretty quickly."

"That doesn't actually answer my question of why you want me, in particular, to join and while that does sound nice and I have kind of a completist personality I don't think I have what it takes to succeed in the Travelers," Fayne said.

"What, too afraid to break the rules?" Grim challenged.

"I have literally no stealth skills," Fayne said. "And my lock-picking is rather mediocre. I buy more lock picks at this point than I do healing potions."

"Well that is…unfortunate," Grim conceded. "But…whether or not you can actually succeed at being a Traveler isn't my concern. I just need to get people to agree to give it a try. Crilgarin will test your competence. Then Irion and that nightmare Argine."

Fayne hesitated. "I really shouldn't."

"But you want to, don't you?" Grim said knowingly. "Go on, what's the harm? You don't have to commit to anything."

Fayne's resolved crumbled. "Okay, fine, I'll give it a shot. Which one is Crilgarin?"

"Oh, she'll be easy to spot," Grim assured her. "She's the only fae we have."

Fayne perked up. "A fae in the Travelers and not insisting on balance and the Telling and whatnot? How fascinating."

"She took a little getting used to, that's for sure," Grim agreed.

Fayne entered the camp and wandered around, taking everything that people didn't appear to be looking right at, and eventually found Crilgarin.

"Um, hi," she said awkwardly. "Grim said I could join."

"I trust Grim's judgment," Crilgarin replied. She really probably shouldn't given how much discernment Grim put into these things but that was really her business. "But you must also appease our guide, the anonymous hierophant."

"Hierophant?" Fayne repeated. "As in one who interprets sacred mysteries? I don't think I like this person. They seem really full of themselves."

"That's certainly how some look at it," Crilgarin said delicately. "But we must all pray at the Hierophant Shrine and the great Hierophant can tell us what to do. We are entirely free except for that."

"Why does everyone listen to the Hierophant then?" Fayne asked.

"Because the Hierophant is always right and, annoying or not, we do better with her than without her," Crilgarin explained. "She truly has mysterious and remarkable powers."

"Really?" Fayne asked skeptically. "Because she sounds kind of just like your run-of-the-mill Fateweaver to me."

"A-a Fateweaver?" Crilgarin asked, taken aback. "What do you mean?"

"Fateweavers can see the future because they can look at what is destined to happen. If she looks to each individual Traveler she can see what they are fated to succeed at taking and what they are not fated to succeed at taking," Fayne elaborated. "So she gives some details about the things that people are fated to successfully steal thus making their job easier and has them avoid trying to take things they wouldn't succeed at. I mean, it's useful, sure, and I can see where it would be appreciated but it's hardly as wondrous as you're making it out to be. It's pretty creative to use her powers this way but I'm not impressed."

"That is a compelling theory," Crilgarin breathed. "I shall have to consult with…with others."

Fayne shrugged. "Fine by me. Personally all I need to do to confirm my theory is see if she's able to accurately guide me. I'm a little Fate-immune, you see."

"Immune from Fate?" Crilgarin couldn't believe it. "Then what are you doing joining our humble little organization?"

Another shrug. "Grim was very persuasive."

Fayne headed to the gaudy statue in the center of camp and knelt down beside it. She pointedly did not pray to it but a voice started speaking nonetheless. She wasn't sure how it managed to do that but it must be magic of some sort. Perhaps it was the same sort of magic used in the lorestones or a modified version, at least.

"I don't like you," the Hierophant said.

Fayne blinked. "That's rather rude, don't you think?"

"How is it rude to share my opinion?" the Hierophant asked innocently. "Especially as you have come here to hear it. But I suppose that since you are hear and following our customs I can make an effort. Ask me for my portents."

Fayne rolled her eyes but indulged her and her petty power play.

"The price to admit you is great. It will take three treasures to balance the burden."

"And why is the price to admit me in particular so high?" Fayne demanded. "Is it really just that you don't like me? Because that is really petty of you."

"Hey, I make the rules and if you don't like it you can leave," the Hierophant said bluntly. "In Didenhil there's this noble named Ealfwig and you must steal his medallion. In the nearby mission take the pall of the dead Saint Eadric. Finally, we contacted the owner of Draug's Toothpicks, Gunnar Frode, to buy them. Instead we're just going to steal them. Any questions?"

"Uh, yeah, you could say that," Fayne said. "First of all, why do I need to steal from a religious organization? And a holy relic at that!"

"Oh, don't tell me you're a follower of Mitharu," the Hierophant said, groaning.

"I don't believe that I am, no," Fayne replied. "But I still feel rather icky about doing it."

"Well suck it up because it might be a precious and irreplaceable holy relic for them but we can get good money out of it," the Hierophant said bluntly.

"And if we were supposed to buy this toothpick or whatever – and I'm hoping it's not a literal toothpick – then why do we have to steal it?" Fayne asked.

"Well we are an organization of thieves."

"Yeah but if we start to get a reputation as cheating our would-be sellers out of their money by stealing their things then no one will be willing to do business with us," Fayne pointed out. "And sure, we could just end up stealing everything but I just think that our lives would be a lot simpler and more pleasant if people didn't hate us for being unwilling to buy anything. And if we're not willing to buy anything then what's the point in stealing things and selling them for profit? Who needs money if you're just going to take everything."

"We're not taking everything just that," the Hierophant said in a voice that indicated that she was not willing to explain further. "Now either do it or go away forever. Personally I'd prefer the latter but I'm willing to give you a chance here."

Fayne sighed. "Lucky me."

She headed after the better not actually be toothpicks Draug's Toothpicks first. Unfortunately, she was distracted by two people who clearly wanted to speak with her. She decided to just bite the bullet and see what they wanted.

"Okay, who needs a quest completed?"

"Well…not that I'm asking you to risk your life or anything but I've heard there have been some vicious brownie attacks that are scaring away travelers. If you could kill all of them that would be great," one of them said.

"Brownies," Fayne repeated skeptically. "Are you seriously telling me that you've been terrorized by a bunch of wild seven-year-old girls?"

"Hey, they can be as old as nine!" the man protested. "But no, I don't believe that's what they mean. Just…wander around, see if you get attacked, and kill whatever attacks you, okay?"

Fayne shrugged. "Oh, why not? And what about you?"

"There is a lovely young woman named Luca Soren who I've never seen before and who passed out right as she got to my inn. It's not weird I know her name," the man said. "She was attacked by a thresh and she needs a rare plant to cure her. Could you go find it so she doesn't die? I think I want to marry her."

"That's not weird at all," Fayne muttered. "But why not? Give me like two hours and I'll be back!"

\----

Two hours later she returned with the plant and news that she killed the brownies.

They insisted that she stand by while the antidote was made up and administered for Luca.

The moment she awoke she said, "Thank you for saving me. Now I need someone to go murder the thresh that nearly killed me and that I think probably killed my father."

Everyone looked to Fayne.

"What did you people do before I showed up two hours ago?" she wondered.

"Fretted uselessly," one of the men said.

"I nearly died," Luca said.

Fayne sighed. "I think I already killed your thresh for you. I killed lots of things and like four threshes while I was out there. I'd still like a reward, though."

"Here's double for being so efficient," Luca said, smiling.

"Excellent!" one of the men said. "Now that that's settled, let's discuss the wedding."

Luca looked confused. "Wedding? What…?"

"I should probably not be involved in this," Fayne said, taking the opportunity to disengage from the conversation.

"Hey, you must be the Traveler I've been waiting for," a man said, standing up, as she walked by.

"I-I am, yes," Fayne admitted, taken aback. "But how could you possibly know that?"

"It's more wishful thinking, really," Gunnar replied. "I've been getting bored sitting here and all. So I agreed to sell the daggers to you."

"Daggers?" Fayne repeated, brightening. "Oh thank goodness!"

Gunnar gave her a strange look. "What, did you think they were actually toothpicks or something?"

Fayne crossed her arms defiantly. "Well I wondered, that's all. It's kind of a strange name. So I'm supposed to just steal them from you but I actually kind of suck at that sort of thing so I'll just buy them instead."

"I don't know whether to focus on the fact that the Travelers decided to betray me for no apparent reason and steal the stuff I would have given them willingly or the fact that you apparently became a Traveler when you can't even steal," Gunnar admitted.

"How about focusing on selling me the daggers," Fayne hinted.

"Okay. I want 7,500 gold pieces for it," Gunnar told her bluntly.

Fayne shrugged. "Okay, here you go."

Gunnar stared at her and quickly took the money. "Are you serious? What kind of Traveler doesn't haggle?"

"The kind who just bought something that she was supposed to steal, I suppose," Fayne replied. She left him and took a look at the bookshelf. She saw one of those dirty books that she was obsessively collecting despite not really being sure of why and pocketed it.

Immediately she could tell she made a mistake as the inn got deathly quiet. She turned around and saw literally everyone, including Gunnar who didn't even own the book, drawing their weapons.

"Maybe I'll just put this back…"

"It's too late for that," one of the men said seriously. "You stole from us so you deserve to die."

"Are you kidding me?" Fayne demanded. "I just did both of you a huge favor and maybe even saved your business! I saved Luca!"

"And that's great but now you stole so you must die," the other man said seriously.

Panicked and not really wanting to kill any of these people even if their hardcoreness was really off-putting, Fayne fled the building.

Fortunately, it seemed that while they felt strongly enough to try to kill her they didn't feel strongly enough to follow her outside.

"Talk about weird," she muttered and headed off to the next item she needed to obtain and should probably steal.

There were three people praying at the mission and she rather thought they had more cause to all start advancing on her when she opened the crypt but none of them were armed so she just ran out the door. Unfortunately, the guards were running towards her and so she quick-traveled to Didenhil. She wondered just how long she'd have to avoid those places until people got over her little acts of minor theft or religious artifact abduction.

She headed back to Didenhil and went to the inn. She could tell which one was Ealfwig right away. She just walked into his room and he drew back in disgust.

"Ew, get your filthy poisoned peasant air away from me!"

"My…air?" Fayne repeated, wondering if she had somehow misheard him.

"Yes."

Apparently satisfied that his order would be obeyed, he promptly went to the bed and lied down on it. He didn't bother undressing or even slipping under the covers and in a matter of seconds he was asleep. That was certainly fortunate and Fayne had no trouble grabbing the medallion off of him. And this time she didn't even have to run from the authorities or vigilante civilians!

She headed back to Star Camp and found Crilgarin mediating once again. Of course she was. When did fae ever do anything else?

"Congratulations on being a Traveler now. We're practically a family though not a very close one sometimes," she said. "Now that you're in the Hierophant can and probably will try to keep you moving from one job to the next constantly. Your next job is to steal from one of my kind and it will probably get you killed. Does the Hierophant hate you or something?"

"She does, yes," Fayne confirmed. "I think it's the whole Fateless thing, personally."

"Well I do hope you don't give in and die," Crilgarin told her. "It would be truly a shame."

She went and knelt before the Hierophant's Shrine again.

"So you've come before me again, Shade," the Hierophant said.

"Actually my name is 'Fayne'," Fayne corrected. "Sort of. Are you calling me 'shade' because you can't see my fate?"

"…No."

"I don't believe you. Either way, there's nothing worth remarking about the fact I'm here again since you kind of told me to be here and apparently this is a requirement of joining the Travelers."

"I know but you didn't have to join," the Hierophant pointed out.

"After all that? I kind of did."

"Since you've proven to be so capable at your last task I'm going to give you another," the Hierophant said.

"Capable?" Fayne asked. "Well I did technically procure the items, certainly, but 'capable' might be going a bit far. Stop trying to pretend I'm some master thief and that's why you're giving me something else to do. I'm pretty sure you're just trying to kill me."

"To think such things is treason."

"Treason? You're not a legitimate authority," Fayne pointed out.

"If I were trying to kill you – and I'm not – you could hardly blame me given how rude you are to me," the Hierophant huffed.

"Excuse me for not being polite to someone who hates me and is trying to get me killed," Fayne shot back.

"Enough. A summer fae named Ametair has a pair of magical boots. I want them. But you'll need to find his herald, Aergase, in the Sidhe," the Hierophant said. "Return when you have my boots."

"Do you ever bother stealing anything yourself?" Fayne asked but the Hierophant didn't answer. "Fine. Be that way."

Fayne hadn't been out that way before so she had to actually walk there. Fortunately, despite summer fae largely blending into the background, Aergase was easy to find.

"Hi, this is going to be weird no matter how I phrase it so I'm just going to come right out and say it," Fayne said. "I need Ametair's boots."

"I was hoping someone would come up to me one day and say that!" Aergase said happily.

"I don't even want to know, do I?"

"Probably not but you have a better chance of surviving if you do," Aergase told her. "The boots have a terrible curse. They drive you mad and you get obsessed about hunting literally everything. It was too late for my master to get his sanity back and throw away the boots and so he managed to seclude himself in Arduath before it was too late. If you go there he'll probably try to kill you and I can't promise that the boots won't make you hunt happy as well. Though you're probably not as hunt-focused as my master is anyway so you should be fine. I think. I do so hope you manage to save him. And by save I kind of mean kill because that way he can be reborn unaffected – hopefully – by the boot's pull."

"I don't know," Fayne said hesitantly. "I kind of have a bad habit of potentially permanently killing fae."

"Then don't engage in that habit," Aergase said simply. "And let me know what happens!"

"I'll try and remember," Fayne offered halfheartedly, knowing she probably wouldn't bother. "Or check with the Travelers!"

She travelled to the Arduath cave.

"Who is there?" a fae voice called out though she couldn't see anyone. "You must leave. I sealed myself in this cave and have the willpower not to leave it to seek things to hunt but the moment I detect something living…oh, it's too late. Willpower is gone. I'm going to have to hunt you now."

"That's not going to work out very well for you," Fayne said. "I know I can probably kill you but it's still really creepy that you plan to hunt me. You do realize the boots are cursed, right?"

"I do," Ametair confirmed. "But what can you do? I hope I don't kill you."

"What a strange guy," Fayne murmured. For all that he claimed he was hunting her, she ended up having to chase him all over the cave before she finally managed to kill him. She took the boots, which appeared to have someone been greatly damaged, and left. Had the boots been damaged by her killing him? Were they just damaged in general and would have fallen apart and freeing Ametair on his own without her interference? It was an uncomfortable thought and she decided to blame the Hierophant by blatantly trying to kill her by sending her after him. But at least she hadn't beaten him to death with his own fate so he would probably be fine. Oh, to be a fae!

When she returned to the camp, Crilgarin sought her out. "Oh, wow, those boots are damaged. Still, all she requested was that they were in hand and they are. The Hierophant will probably want you to do a bunch of other stealing tasks but I've got one that's a bit more pressing and that I know she won't approve of."

"This sounds promising," Fayne said.

"Grim hasn't returned from a mission so I think he's probably been captured," Crilgarin said.

"Are you sure the mission isn't just taking longer than he expected?" Fayne asked.

"Well, no, but I'd rather waste your time and feel foolish if he's fine then allow him to languish in captivity. Besides, it's not my time I'd be wasting. I'd be really grateful if you went. He was over in Ohn's Stand. That's not too out of the way, is it?"

"I've literally never been there and will have to walk the whole way."

"Ah, well, in that case if you ever need to return to the area – and I'm sure you will – you'll be ready!" Crilgarin said brightly. "Good luck and don't tell the Hierophant! Between us, Grim has this strange idea that she's trying to mission him to death. What a strange thing to say."

"Oh, I don't know. I think I can see where he's coming from."

\----

She found the fortress and sort of just strolled right in. The fortress was infested with wild gnomes which were not a foe she often had to face. The hardest part of fighting gnomes was hitting them when they were so much shorter than her arms and so she had to just keep casting spells at them.

Now, she didn't technically think she did anything wrong because she just wandered in there and they started attacking her for no good reason but if she thought too hard about it she might disagree and so she resolved to not think about it.

Grim was locked in a cage not that far from the entrance. "Hey, dove, it's you!"

"Are you calling me that because you just call people that generally or because you don't know my name?" Fayne asked.

"I seriously have no idea what your name is. I probably should, you know, ask or something before inviting people to join the Travelers," Grim said. "So what is it?"

"Fayne."

"Fayne, huh? Interesting," Grim remarked. "I am so glad to see you! I'm guessing Crilgarin sent you."

Fayne crossed her arms, a little annoyed even though he wasn't wrong. "And just what makes you think she's behind this?"

"Well Crilgarin is a good friend of mine and I didn't even know your name," Grim said reasonably. "Plus she knew where I was going to be and you didn't."

"I suppose you have a point," Fayne admitted reluctantly. "So what happened?"

"The Hierophant is trying to kill me."

"Join the club," Fayne said. "But what makes you think that?"

"She told me to go steal the Missives of Sable and she probably knows I've been trying to bring her down for ages and when I got here I walked right into an ambush."

"And you're sure that you weren't just careless or they didn't have really really good security?" Fayne asked. "Not to try and insult you or anything; I just have to be thorough."

Grim nodded. "I might have thought that they were just very, very careful given how important this book seems to be to them if they hadn't mentioned how 'she' was right when they ambushed me. I'm pretty sure the Hierophant tipped them off. Now I need to get out of here but I can't break out without my stealth kit so you can do that or steal a key or go find the Missives of Sable before they do and barter it for my release."

Fayne fiddled with the lock and broke three picks but finally it swung open. "Or we could just leave now. Your cell door is open."

"I can't leave now," Grim said. "You have to do one of the three things I suggested."

"There is literally nothing stopping you from leaving now," Fayne said flatly.

"Can't do it."

"I will just leave now that I saved you and you can follow or not at your own discretion," Fayne threatened.

"Sooner or later someone will come by, see the bodies, and lock the door right back up," Grim pointed out.

Fayne glared at him and stomped off. She went a different way from the way the gnomes were going (as fortunately she had an in-depth map of this place) and was displeased to discover that Jotun were infesting the rest of the fortress which might be why the gnomes were making such slow progress.

She eventually found a book labeled 'Missives of Sable' and headed back to Grim.

"Okay, I got the book," she said.

"Excellent!" he exclaimed. "Now go find the gnome leader and offer to trade it for my freedom before they decide to just execute me."

"Are you kidding?" Fayne demanded. "This is a chance to get out and complete the quest. I have the book and I've freed you! Why should I have to surrender it to the gnomes when they don't even know we're here and you can leave anytime you like?"

"Because I said so," Grim said unhelpfully. "Now you're here to save me, right? Well you can't do that without sacrificing that book. I won't take that with me."

"I am this close to just leaving you here," Fayne informed him.

Grim snorted. "I'm sure Crilgarin will just love to hear about how you so cruelly abandoned me at the last moment."

Fayne started walking around banging the walls and generally making a lot of noise.

Eventually, a more decorated gnome came to investigate.

"Are you in charge? Tell me you're in charge," Fayne requested.

"I am," the gnome confirmed. "My name is Gastet and I am a centurian. Another Traveler?"

"For the love of…am I wearing some sort of special Traveler nametag I can't see or something? How is it that everywhere I go everyone always knows I'm a Traveler?" Fayne burst out. "Do you just accuse everyone of being a Traveler? Is your accurate Traveler prediction rate like five percent?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Gastet said stiffly. "We don't accuse gnomes."

"So I have your book and Grim says I should give it to you in exchange for his freedom," Fayne said, rolling her eyes. "I mean, I unlocked his cell and everything but you know what they say about how you can lead a horse to water."

"I don't, actually."

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't force it to drink," Fayne explained. "I can't make him leave and since I'm here to rescue him I kind of have to humor him."

"I'm sure my men and I could probably kill you easily but I'm feeling charitable," Gastet said. "If you give me the Missives then I will give you whatever you want."

"Whatever I want?" Fayne repeated. "I should probably ask for more than the freedom of someone who is already free to go."

"Too late, you already asked for his freedom," Gastet said. "Here's the key to his cell."

Fayne accepted the key even though she really didn't need it and handed over the book.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Gastet said cheerfully. "You have ten minutes to get out of here or we start attacking."

She headed back to Grim.

"Hurry up," he urged. "I don't know how long it will be until the gnomes decide to kill me."

"Okay, you can cut it out now. I bought your freedom."

"I hate giving those gnomes the missive," Grim growled, punching his hand, "but it was the only real way, wasn't it?"

Fayne's eye twitched. "I'm not even going to touch that one."

"I'm going to plot a way to bring her down so I should probably make myself scarce. You should, too," Grim advised.

"I can't do that and furthermore I don't even know what this is about so I don't know why I should," Fayne said. "I'm going to go tell Crilgarin that you're safe."

Grim ran off and, when she exited the fortress ten seconds after him, he was already gone. Exactly how had he needed her help getting out of that cell? He wasn't even strip-searched! Some Traveler he was. Though a more traditionally talented one than she was, no doubt.

Crilgarin stood up the moment she approached, positively buzzing with energy. "Grim contacted me and told me to pretend I'd never seen him and said he's out to bring down the Hierophant and he'd let me know when he needed me. The Hierophant is kind of all-seeing but after hearing your theory that she's a Fateweaver and can't see you we decided to involve you in the plan as much as possible to see if we could trip her up."

"Oh joy," Fayne said sarcastically.

Crilgarin looked curiously at her. "You don't want to help bring down the Hierophant? I mean, I find it a little disconcerting and plenty surprising that she would go so far to silence a single voice of dissent but you don't seem to like her very much."

"I don't," Fayne replied. "And I can attest to the fact that she's tried to kill before. I haven't even opposed her and she still wants me dead. Like it will be that easy and I'm sure I was brought back for a far greater purpose than to die so she can keep her stupid power."

"Brought back?"

Fayne shook her head. "Never mind. So I do kind of want to bring her down, I'm just annoyed that Grim made me waste so much time rescuing him."

"It's hardly his fault he was captured," Crilgarin protested.

"Maybe not," Fayne allowed. "But what was his excuse for the rest of it? Even if you don't know what I'm talking about, he does."

"I'll take it up with him when I see him again. For now, I can only tell you that your work in the Star Camp is done and you should move on to the Moon Camp right outside of Rathir. The leader, Irion Tal, should have work for you."

"Should I give the Hierophant or you those boots or…?" Fayne inquired.

"No, you hold onto them. You never know when they'll come in handy," Crilgarin said.

"So is this going to Moon Camp thing a time sensitive thing?" Fayne asked. "Because, I mean, I've been to Rathir before but it's kind of a ways away and I really should get back to some of the things I was doing before I got side-tracked joining the Warsworn."

Crilgarin paled. "Warsworn? You're a Warsworn?"

Fayne nodded proudly. "I have the highest rank one can have short of being in charge of a keep or the whole order."

"You never mentioned anything about that!"

Fayne tilted her head curiously. "Why? What's the problem?"

"Warsworn and Travelers are bitter enemies!" Crilgarin informed her.

"Let's see…law enforcers who fight for honor and thieves…I can see it," Fayne said. "But I'm sure this won't be a problem."

"Perhaps it's for the best you're moving on," Crilgarin said uncomfortably.


	13. Chapter 13

Fayne realized she really should have gotten better directions from Alyn. Or any directions, really. She just headed to the outskirts of Ysa and decided to ask the first person she met if they knew anything about the oldest living mortal. That sounded like an interesting if useless piece of trivia so people might actually know.

She saw a fae and thought the odds were even better now. "Hi, do you-"

"Nyralim wants to see you. He doesn't talk a lot. Sometimes he stays quiet for so long we wonder if he died. And he never wants to talk to mortals so you must be extra special," the fae said.

Fayne snapped her fingers. "Nyralim, that's the name! I really should have written that down."

The fae narrowed her eyes. "And properly appreciative, I see. Nyralim wouldn't speak to you if it weren't some pressing matter about Fate but I find your lack of knowledge disconcerting."

"I don't think you should try to dictate who he can and can't speak to," Fayne said, a little sharply, "or about what. He's the oldest creature in the world. If he wants to talk about stupid stuff then let him. Do trees even have genders? Whatever, until someone corrects me I'm calling him a he because calling him an it seems disrespectful. If he wants to be called an it I'll probably have to think of ways to avoid using a pronoun."

"I think you're putting way too much thought into this," the fae said. "Now come on. All summer fae are allowed into Ysa but literally everyone else must be vetted by Nyralim."

"But didn't you just say that he barely talks and even then it's not going to be to a mortal?"

"I didn't say there's a great deal of mortals coming into Ysa," the fae pointed out. She pointed Fayne towards the giant tree and so she dutifully headed towards it.

Apparently the tree could talk. It was really weird that it seemed to stretch on for ages and its roots were probably miles and it was all one thing.

"Come closer, little curiosity," a deep rumbling voice said. Was that Nyralim? How could a tree talk with no vocal chords? Or was it a weird tree that did have them? Or was she just supposed to accept this on magic? Could it see her? How did it hear? Did she have to get right up close to it in order for it to hear her? And…now she was thinking of it in terms of being an it. Well the tree wasn't talking. This was going to give her a huge headache, wasn't it?

When she got close enough, she saw a green floating giant eye thing which was probably how Nyralim manifested himself outside of just being a giant tree.

"You know, if you were red there is literally nothing you could do to convince me that you weren't evil," Fayne informed him.

"It is a good thing, then, that I am not red," Nyralim said. "Stand still so that I may study you."

"Study me?" Fayne asked self-consciously.

"You have the power to change fate. I have literally never seen anything so freakish in my entire life and I have been here since the world was created," Nyralim confided.

"You're a giant talking tree with Sauron vibes and the fae literally are reborn time and time again and I'm the freakish one?"

"That is correct," Nyralim agreed. "I am well-used to myself after all this time and I was not always alone. Despite the deaths of the rest of my family, I optimistically predict I shall be around forever. And there are lots of fae but only one fateless one."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Lucky me."

"Lucky you, indeed!" Nyralim exclaimed. "Have you any idea how blessed you are to be able to choose how events unfold?"

"Not really. It all sounds like an excuse to make me do everything," Fayne admitted. "Maybe if I remembered any of this I'd be more invested."

"I should certainly hope so! Now listen, the fae are in decline. They're just all at the start of their eventual death. It's very sad but it may take centuries or even millennia so perhaps it's not so very sad for mortals."

"What makes you think they're in decline?" Fayne asked.

"It is their fate."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Ah, of course. Fate. But what is going to wipe them out? Are they just going to spontaneously stop coming back to life? Is there going to be some fae plague? Am I going to end up personally killing all of them?"

"There is a fae war going on that's killing large numbers of fae," Nyralim pointed out.

"And? Do fae get pregnant and have kids like other species?" Fayne wondered. "If so I could sort of see how wiping out too many of them would be a problem but I'm sure this war can't go on forever."

"It doesn't need to go on forever. Just long enough for the fae to be wiped out."

"But wait a second," Fayne protested. "I thought I heard something about how this war is so bad and not fair to our side because the Tuatha just come back once we kill them. But if they had to be born and raised and we've only been at war for ten years that doesn't work. Unless they just age really quickly, I suppose."

"Just accept that the fae are dying and you are the only one who can stop this," Nyralim ordered.

Fayne crossed her arms. "Well I don't see what I'm supposed to do if you won't even tell me anything about it. Unless you think I should stop permanently killing them. Well I'm working on it, okay? I'd ask how you even knew they were doomed but you can probably Fateweave without the cards."

"Only mortals need the cards," Nyralim said haughtily. "Since you have the power to change fate, I need proof that you're not going to change it to hasten the demise of the summer fae. As such, I propose a test. There is a troll leader, Gnarsh, who has been corrupted with prismere and whose allies have also fallen under its say. She means to destroy this entire area including all of Ysa. She is fated to succeed. You must stop her and save the summer fae."

"How can I possibly hasten the demise of the summer fae if Gnarsh and her prismere trolls are fated to kill them?" Fayne asked.

"The trolls aren't terribly organized," Nyralim explained. "We have some time. Even if their fate cannot be changed, I would prefer to give the fae as long as I can."

"So, wait, if I stop the trolls and save the fae and then maybe somehow end the war will the fae be saved then?" Fayne asked.

"It's…possible," Nyralim said hesitantly. "But honestly I think the fae departing this land to give the mortals their time to rule is kind of the effect that is being gone for here."

"Well it's stupid," Fayne complained. "We all live apart anyway. If the Tuatha cut it out why can't we thrive and rule and the fae do the same? We just have to not expand literally everywhere and let the fae have their own land. We can do it. I'm sure of it. We respect giving gnomes and alfar their own lands so why can't we do it with the fae?"

"Well maybe you can if you rewrite Fate," Nyralim said but Fayne kind of got the impression that he was humoring her.

"What kind of test is this anyway?" Fayne asked. "Obviously I need to get into Ysa. You won't let me in until I stop the trolls and that probably means killing them all even though, unless I do it a certain way, they'll just be back. Though maybe free from the prismere's influence. How can I possibly resolve this without killing them? Trolls don't even talk to me. And if I somehow could resolve it in an evil manner, why would I given that I know you're testing me and I need to please you?"

"Don't question the test," Nyralim said, not appreciating her pointing out the absurdity in his little plan.

"This test is very important. Even if you can change Fate, perhaps it won't be for the better."

"If I can change Fate and Fate says that the world is ending then the worst case scenario is that the world just ends another way and anything other than that is changing it for the better," Fayne insisted. "Seriously, why is that so difficult for you all to grasp?"

"But there are people out there who are far more dangerous than Gnarsh. People like your companion, Alyn Shir," Nyralim said cryptically.

"I would hardly call her my companion as she keeps ditching me," Fayne murmured darkly. "But are you seriously telling me that Alyn Shir is more dangerous than pack of prismere-wielding trolls?"

"Yes."

Fayne waited. "And…are you going to explain to me how?"

"No. I don't feel like telling you anything about our past association. Good luck with the trolls!"

Fayne sighed and headed out to go take down the trolls.

She walked into the Haxhi dam and found Alyn waiting for her.

"What are you doing here?" Fayne asked, surprised. "I thought you were sitting this one out because you did something and Nyralim doesn't trust you."

"I'm sitting out the part where I have to talk to Nyralim or his people," Alyn corrected. "Helping you kill Gnarsh isn't really going against that decision."

Fayne scrunched up her nose. "Are you sure that I'm supposed to kill her?"

Alyn stared at her. "Yes. Yes I absolutely am. Why would you doubt this?"

Fayne shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. It's just that Nyralim said this is a test for me and I can't actually see any choices here besides killing her or not killing her. And I know that if I don't kill her that he won't let me into Ysa which, nefarious intentions or accidental world-destroying future or not, he knows I'm seeking. I just don't see how this is a test so I'm probably missing something. Maybe I'm supposed to reason with Gnarsh or something and get her to back down."

It took Alyn a full seven minutes to stop laughing too hard to speak. "You…you try that. I'll watch."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "It's just an idea. Nyralim wasn't very helpful. How did you even know I would be going here and get here before me if you're avoiding anyone who might have known?"

"There's a time for talk and a time for fighting. Let's go kill a troll!" Alyn said loudly, beginning to stroll away.

Fayne sighed and hurried after her. They had to fight their way through a lot of trolls to get to Gnarsh, which was expected, and some Tuatha, which was not.

"Have you ever thought about doing something about the fact that the Tuatha can and do find you wherever you go?" Alyn asked her. "It's just getting a little bit inconvenient."

"I think that's what Agarth wanted me to do," Fayne replied. "But I chose to go do what you wanted first."

"That's sweet and I can't actually be fully annoyed at you for not getting that sorted out first then," Alyn said.

"What makes you think they're here because of me?" Fayne asked. "If Gnarsh is using prismere like the Tuatha and plotting to destroy the Tuatha's enemy for them then why can't they be here because of that? And I'll have you know that Tuatha rarely show up and attack me when I give them plenty of opportunity."

"You might have a point," Alyn admitted. "And the moment that you go out and prevent them from following you around we can say for certain."

The ground started to shake as they came across a troll who roared angrily and charged at them.

"The prismere!" Alyn gasped. "What have they done to her?"

Honestly, Fayne didn't see anything different between her and other trolls. Maybe the glowing things on her back?

"Wait!" Fayne protested as she ran away from Gnarsh. "We can work something out! We don't have to fight!"

"I think we kind of do," Alyn disagreed, throwing a dagger at the troll.

"Do you think I've tried hard enough for Nyralim to be satisfied?" Fayne asked, as she continued dodging Gnarsh's attacks but in no way contributed to any sort of offensive.

"If I say no we're both going to die so what do you think?"

"Yes?" Fayne asked, finally taking out her stave and shooting lightning at the troll.

"It's a rock troll! Rocks don't conduct electricity!" Alyn berated her.

"I hurt it a little…"

Fayne wisely switched attacks and soon enough Gnarsh was dead at their feet.

"Well that was fun," Alyn said. "I'm going to go hunt Tuatha now."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to stick with me since they're apparently following me everywhere I go?" Fayne asked.

"You don't believe that so clearly you're not making that offer in good faith," Alyn sniffed. "Besides, you're planning on getting rid of that anyway and if I went with you I'd have to talk to Nyralim and Agarth. No, this way is better and I've got to make sure that the Tuatha don't get a foothold this far in. But I'll see you soon enough."

Fayne glared at her.

"What?"

"Stop making the fact that you won't stick around and let me have a party member sound like you're doing the right thing."

"Well I kind of am," Alyn pointed out. "And I'm sure Agarth is, too. There's kind of a war going on, you know, and it could kill us all."

"What did I just say about not doing that?" Fayne demanded.

Alyn laughed. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'll leave now so you don't have to hear it. But we both know I'm right."

Fayne crossed her arms and glared until Alyn disappeared from sight then she headed back to Nyralim.

"Well the trolls haven't destroyed this area since you left so I assume you must have been successful," Nyralim announced.

Fayne started choking. "You're not even going to check?"

"I don't need to. The peace of this place is enough."

"Just how close were you cutting it with this whole stop Gnarsh from destroying everything business?" Fayne asked suspiciously.

"All I will say is that you were the only one who could have done anything so all those other details don't really matter," Nyralim said.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't do anything except kill Gnarsh. I did try but she wasn't interested."

"Why would you be expected to do anything except kill her?" Nyralim seemed confused.

Fayne's eye twitched. "You're the one who said it was a test!"

"And you killed her and so passed it!"

"And how exactly do you feel I would have failed it?" Fayne demanded. "You knew I had to get to Ysa!"

"Well, um, this way I knew that you were sane enough to do what was necessary to achieve a goal and not just randomly destructive," Nyralim offered. "You don't want someone so unreliable to get into Ysa during a time like this. But you're not like that and so here you are. You can go to Ysa."

"You know, you could have just told me that you needed me to save Ysa and that it would be in my best interest as I need to go there and that it being destroyed would be a disaster," Fayne said pointedly. "You didn't need to make up any nonsense about a test."

"It's not 'nonsense'," Nyralim said petulantly.

"So…since I helped you can you do anything to help me?" Fayne asked.

"Like what?"

"At this point, I don't even care. Normally I'd get some gold or something but you're a tree so I don't know if you're really up on that," Fayne said.

"Someone with the power of an immortal being so humble as to ask for help!" Nyralim exclaimed. "I approve."

"I wouldn't know about having the power of an immortal or what's so humble about wanting to get paid but, sure, let's go with that," Fayne said.

"Fae are immortal and you seem to be as strong as them," Nyralim pointed out.

Fayne laughed. "As strong as. Right. Cute."

"So I give you my blessing."

Fayne blinked a few times. "That's…great."

"It's a living sap of me put into a pendant that gives you ten percent on elemental resistance," Nyralim explained.

Fayne's eyes lit up. "And thank you."

"To get to Ysa, you must go to the Heart of the Sidhe," Nyralim told her.

"Thank you," Fayne said again, wishing that he was a little more specific.

She went to the Sidhe and wandered around for three hours before she found what she was looking for.

"Ysa," she breathed once she'd entered it. "It's beautiful."

There were a few armed people there to meet her.

"Excuse me, you're the one that Nyralim sent, right?" the leader asked. "The freakish fateless one?"

"I would prefer you not to use the word 'freakish', but yes," Fayne said. "Fayne. My name is Fayne."

"I would prefer that you would have a fate like a normal person but it seems that today is not a day that's about getting what we want," the fae said.

Fayne raised an eyebrow. "Would you, though? Would you really? Because if I was a normal woman with a normal fate than Gnarsh and her prismere trolls would have probably already killed you."

It took the fae a moment to recover. "Well I wish your normal fate was stopping the trolls then."

"It wasn't. Your fate was to die horribly killed by trolls," Fayne said. "But yeah, go ahead and complain about me. I don't mind."

"Well…you did save us so that makes it a little awkward but…you can't come to Ysa."

"I am already in Ysa," Fayne pointed out.

"You can't come meet our king, then," the fae said.

"Why not?" Fayne demanded, narrowing her eyes. "I came all this way just to do that and I saved everybody. Why can't I go meet your king?"

"There are Tuatha agents somehow tracking you. You could lead them straight to us," the fae said seriously.

Fayne threw her arms up in the air and looked at the sky. "Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously," the fae said defensively. "Why wouldn't we be serious about this?"

"Are you trying to tell me that the Tuatha have no idea where you guys are located?" Fayne asked.

"Well, no, but-"

"Or that me being in your city over here puts you in less danger than being in your city over by your king?"

"Not exactly but-"

"Or that, despite the fact that the Tuatha have – for whatever reason – chosen not to attack this city in ten year, once they realize I'm here they'll ambush me here instead of tracking me somewhere else when I leave? I'm not a fae. They can't possibly think I'm going to move here," Fayne said, annoyed.

"Those are all very good points but this is our city and you have to leave until you're no longer being hunted," the fae said imperiously.

"I don't know who you are, random guard guy, but I kind of hate you," Fayne said witheringly.

"That might actually be some concern if you had my name," he replied.

"Is it too late now to ask?" she asked sweetly.

"A little, yeah."

\----

Normally Fayne didn't mind taking forever to do things but she had actually had her heart set on going to Ysa and resolving that matter and so she headed straight for Didenhil to go get the Tuatha taken care of. Since she'd already saved the town, she didn't run into any distractions before finding Agarth in the inn.

"It's your fault I can't pay my tab, you know," Agarth said, a little drunk. "I wasn't ever supposed to come back here."

"It's not my fault it's been weeks since I last saw you," Fayne said. "I mean, it kind of is but I was busy doing important things. I saved the world, did you know that? The Tuatha were taking forever to destroy it so somebody else decided to beat them to the punch." She stopped as what he said sunk in. "Oh, wait, you were back to blaming me for the fact I saved your life again. Well racking up a huge bar tab and skipping out on it to go die is a terrible thing to do."

"But you don't understand," Agarth whined. "I was supposed to be horribly murdered and eaten by an Ettin!"

"I don't even know what that is."

Agarth rolled his eyes. "The thing you saved me from."

"Oh, that," Fayne said. "Well if you want to you can always go back and try again, I guess."

"It's no longer my fate, too," Agarth said. "Besides, I don't want to that much. I became a drunk because I was so horrified by my fate after all."

"Then what is the problem here again?" Fayne asked. "Or are you just drinking because that's what you do?"

"The problem is that I thought I had my life all in order and you introduced uncertainty there!" Agarth complained.

Fayne raised an eyebrow. "And you were clearly making great choices because of it. If you want to know your fate so badly why don't you check yours again? I don't think breaking the codex destroyed your ability or anything. Or are you now a fateless one as well?"

Agarth shuddered. "Don't even joke about that! No, of course I have a new fate. Probably. I just haven't checked. I'm not sure I want to know."

"Well it can't be any worse than your previous one," Fayne reasoned. "What, exactly, do you want, Agarth? Or is it just to complain?"

"I do like complaining," Agarth said thoughtfully. "I'm just sort of reminiscing on the twenty years I spent not doing anything awesome and avoiding the Theater of Fate like the plague since I knew I'd die there. I used to be a great hero, you know, and when I was initiated into the Fateweavers I thought it was a reward. Turned out they were just sadistic berks who wanted to tear me down."

"Well that sucks. Out of curiosity, if you were avoiding the Theater of Fate and only went along because of me then why would you be there in the first place? Because I don't have a part in the tapestry, right, so that couldn't have been it," Fayne pointed out.

"I don't know," Agarth said, mystified. "I wasn't ready to stop avoiding it until I met you. Maybe I looked at how hopeless the world was with us all fated to be killed by Tuatha or Niskaru or what have you – at some point we were so doomed in so many ways I just stopped looking – and so I decided to go see our sacred place before the end since it's not like I'd have lived for much longer regardless."

"I can sort of see it," Fayne said. "Are there really that many end of the world prophecies, though?"

Agarth laughed mirthlessly. "Oh, you don't even want to know. But you're going to have to stop all of them, probably by yourself. Miss even one and we're all doomed."

"I hate the world."

"Though hopefully not enough to let it end," Agarth hinted.

"We'll see," Fayne said tolerantly.

"There's another reason I haven't checked my fate yet. If I stick with you then, good or bad, it will probably change," Agarth began.

Fayne brightened. "Oh, are you sticking with me?"

"I'm not looking to be a follower but I'll go with you some places," Agarth told her.

Fayne sighed. "I guess that will have to do."

"And in case the roll of the dice says that Fate is unkind to me again, I want to keep you around to keep changing it for me," Agarth explained. "So in a way it's kind of super selfish of me to want to make sure you're around so I don't die badly. But I think we should focus on the fact I want the best for you for me."

"I'll take what I can get at this point," Fayne said. "Look, I went to Ysa but they said that I couldn't go see their king until I have this Tuatha stalking problem that rarely seems to actually impact my life unless I'm looking into the whole 'no fate' thing I have going on resolved. So let's resolve this."

Agarth held up a hand. "Wait, wait, wait. You went to Ysa without me? You were going to go deal with that without me there? I'm the one who got you that codex! Were you ever even going to tell me or deal with the Tuatha following or were you just going to let me wait here forever?"

"It's not like you're not happy here," Fayne protested. "Besides, I was going to come back eventually. It's just I'm more curious about this codex than I am interested in dealing with the Tuatha."

"While you were gone, I found out that this town isn't going to die," Agarth announced suddenly.

"…Okay?"

"They were supposed to. There was a plague or something. I've been avoiding it," Agarth said. "And somehow I didn't think they'd want to know so I never said anything and I can't imagine that any of my fellows would have, either."

"Really?" Fayne asked, surprised. "I kind of cured the plague. There were giants who were bothering plaguebearers and whatnot. Everyone kept getting cured and then sick again since the plaguebearers I guess wandered into town sometimes or people wouldn't stop leaving or something. But they were quite clear on just how nonlethal the plague was!"

"Well I don't know! Fate isn't that specific!" Agarth explained. "Maybe no one would come supply them or they couldn't work or something and didn't die from the plague itself but from other things that only happened because of the plague."

"That could be it. But, anyway, if we could focus? How do I go get the Tuatha to go away without killing literally all of them? Because if I do that then meeting with the fae king would seem a little moot," Fayne said.

"Oh, I worked that out ages ago and we could have done this a long time ago had you actually been here to do it," Agarth said pointedly. "They are hiding out in a cave just north of town and I have a plan that requires just the two of us. This is actually going to be super easy."

"I really like the sound of that," Fayne said, impressed. "I thought I'd have to do all the work myself. But I warn you that now I want you as my party member even more."

"Sorry to disappoint," Agarth said. "The Tuatha are being sent after you to make sure you stay dead. I guess with the Tuatha fated to win they want to make sure that you don't go mucking it up for them. They're following you with some large artifact called the Eyes of Tirnoch. We should smash it."

"Can't we steal it and use it ourselves?" Fayne asked.

"To do what? It's not intelligence we're lacking here. And it's very big thing. It would be easier to just break it and far more likely to succeed," Agarth said.

"I suppose I don't know just how big it is," Fayne conceded. "But tell me, if there's an eye of Tirnoch is there a rest of Tirnoch, too? Is Tirnoch a thing? I kind of feel like it is."

"I'm sure it's nothing," Agarth said dismissively. "So are you ready to go or what?"

"I suppose I've kept you waiting long enough."

"So do you want to be the one who singlehandedly storms the front or is more subtle in the back?" Agarth asked.

"Subtle?" Fayne made a face. "Ew."

Agarth's face fell. "But I wanted to do that. But I suppose that's what I get for even giving you that option."

\----

On the way to the cave, Fayne killed a sleeping bear because it was in her way and Agarth got way too excited for that, shouting "Another victory!" Fayne wasn't really one to turn down a compliment but she personally didn't see how it was much of a victory.

"Just kill everyone and smash everything," Agarth suggested. "I'll make sure no one escapes."

"Try not to fall asleep," Fayne said. "Your part will probably be super boring."

"Well I have to ease myself back into heroics somehow," Agarth replied. "Oh, that reminds me, before we go…Is there anything you'd like me to do for you?"

Fayne was puzzled. "Such as?"

"Well, I am a Fateweaver."

"And I am a fateless one," Fayne reminded him.

"I know that, I just want to know if you want to redistribute your abilities," Agarth said. "I'll even give you a discount."

"I think mine are good the way they are, thanks," Fayne said.

"Are you sure?" Agarth asked. "Because I heard something about how you have to kill enchanted people all the time as you have no points in dispelling."

"Yeah, I'm actually pretty okay with that," Fayne said.

"Despite all the innocents you kill?"

"It really isn't that many!" Fayne exclaimed. "And yes, yes I am. I mean, I wouldn't turn down free points but I'd have to give up points in other things and I'm just not willing to do it."

"You have points in alchemy and have never gone near an alchemy bench," Agarth said.

"Yeah, well, you try picking plant leaves and having them literally disintegrate in your hands," Fayne said defensively.

"You can come to me or any other Fateweaver if you need to get some dispelling skill for one task in particular and then change it back," Agarth offered.

"You are just weirdly invested in this, aren't you?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

"Just let me know if you've changed your mind," Agarth said before heading around to the back of the cave.

Fayne killed literally everything before her until Agarth showed up again.

"We're here."

"Did literally anybody escape out the back?" Fayne asked him sweetly.

"No but they could have. Oh, they could," Agarth said seriously.

"So are we done here?" Fayne asked.

Agarth stared at her. "Done? How could we possibly be done? We came here to smash those mirrors and they don't look smashed to me."

"Oh, right," Fayne said sheepishly. "More could always come even if we've killed everyone here. And given my luck with the Red Legion, half of them will have been out to lunch while we were busy massacring everybody."

She turned and approached the mirrors and saw a red (prismere?) glowing fae walking towards her. She charged at him and ran right through him. Awkwardly, she backed up so she was no longer literally occupying the same space as this projection.

"So the undying mortal has grown tired of running, has she? Decided to fight back?" the fae cackled.

"I'm not undying, just reanimated," Fayne corrected. "And I was never running. Except…maybe at the Well of Souls but I had barely even created my own name at that point. I killed all of your people that I saw even then and just had better things to do than chase after you."

"Oh, yes, I heard how you became the King of the House of Ballads," the fae said. "My congratulations."

"Thank you," Fayne said, pleased. "Who are you again? Well, not again because you never told me but…just who are you?"

"I am Gadflow, king of the winter fae," Gadflow introduced himself. "Do you know what the difference is between a fae and a mortal?"

"Is this a riddle? I feel like this is a riddle. I am not in the mood for riddles. In fact, I am literally never in the mood for riddles," Fayne said bluntly.

"I'm just going to tell you then. We fae know our place. You mortals have no respect for the natural order!" Gadflow accused.

Fayne laughed. "Oh, please. You're the one who started a war and rose up when you weren't supposed to change!"

"Oh really?" Gadflow challenged. "And just who is fated to win this war?"

Fayne pursed her lips but didn't respond.

"How could I be fated to win this war if it wasn't supposed to happen?" Gadflow asked smugly. "You were fated to die and stay dead, though. I dislike you greatly for breaking Fate."

"Hey, it's not my fault your guys are too lame to kill me," Fayne said flatly.

"Well one day I will kill you, maybe even personally. In the meantime you will learn of the blessed herald of the merciful Tirnoch!" Gadflow crowed.

"Is that you?" Agarth asked.

"Of course it's me!" Gadflow snapped.

"It's just it didn't sound like you were referring to yourself," Agarth explained.

"Well I was."

"So, wait, Tirnoch is a thing?" Fayne asked.

"Of course Tirnoch is a thing. She is a wonderful and amazing goddess and I will free her yet," Gadflow vowed.

"Huh. Who knew?" Agarth asked. "Or, since he is clearly insane, he could be wrong about that. Or just flat out lying."

Suddenly Gadflow vanished and the shattering of mirrors was heard.

"That had better be his seven years of bad luck and not ours," Fayne grumbled.

"But why did he break his own mirror?" Agarth wondered. "Was he just so petty and spiteful he didn't want to let us do it?"

"Maybe it was an accident," Fayne suggested.

Agarth chuckled. "Oh, there's a thought. So now you've got the personal interest of the Tuatha King Gadflow and he wants you dead. If you were anyone else I'd suggest running, looking into how you are supposed to die, and avoiding anything related to it at all costs. You, though, might just be okay. And we can't look up your death anyway. You really should head to Ysa and stop wasting time, though."

"I'll think about it."

"Do try to take the fact that you're literally the only one who can save any of us a little more seriously," Agarth entreated.


	14. Chapter 14

Fayne was just crossing a bridge and hoping that the woman she saw standing around there wouldn't bother her when her hopes was dashed.

"Excuse me, stranger, but have you seen a young man lost in these ruins? Maybe with two lovebirds who can't take their eyes off each other?" the woman asked.

"No, sorry, can't say I have," Fayne said, hoping that the other woman could let it go at that.

"My name is Jedda Kerning. I'm looking for Turin. And…the lovebirds as well, I suppose, but I don't suppose they'll be much help," Jedda said. "I rather expect that they'll be off having sex."

"That's lovely. I should probably get going," Fayne said.

Jedda's eyes widened. "You mean you're not going to help me look for them?"

"Do you seriously expect every complete stranger you meet to help you out?" Fayne demanded. "And it's not like you need to borrow a health potion or a few coin or anything. You want me to spend an indeterminate amount of time finding someone for you."

"Normally I wouldn't but you look very helpful," Jedda said.

Fayne groaned. "Of course I do. Look, you're not even searching yourself. You're just standing around. I'm not going to get involved if you can't even be bothered to look."

"I am too looking!" Jedda huffed, indignant. "I am quite clearly standing on this bridge and looking out over the ruins to see if he shows up."

"Yeah, that'll do it," Fayne said sarcastically.

"Well if you find Turin at least tell him to give me that damn scroll!" Jedda exclaimed. "He'll know what you mean."

"And if I find those two lovebirds?" Fayne asked.

"Oh, I don't even care," Jedda said. "As I said, they're rather useless."

Fayne decided to just leave before she was actually forced into helping and set off. She was attacked by some kobold and soon ran into a woman just casually sitting around a fire with a tent set up right next to her. Fayne tried to avoid her line of sight but the woman spotted her anyway and stood up.

"Everything's ruined! Turin's lost and Jedda's run off and Oreyn…he's been turned into an antelope!" the woman wailed.

"Before I even touch that one, I take it you were one of the lovebirds Jedda mentioned?" Fayne asked.

The woman managed a shaky smile. "Yes, I'm Marga Sammoc."

"How do you know Turin's lost but not Jedda if she's not here?" Fayne asked.

Marga rolled her eyes. "If you had ever met the two you'd know how I know that."

"I suppose that is a fair point," Fayne said. Some people just exuded far more competence than others. Tragically for her, she appeared to be on the more competent side. "Now, as to the antelope…did you actually see your boyfriend turn into an antelope?"

"Well, no," Marga conceded. "But he did tell me to stand right where I was and then went into some bushes and I heard a shout and saw a flash of light and then an antelope came out wearing Oreyn's silver necklace. I mean, what else was I supposed to think?"

"Yeah, I suppose when your only alternative is accepting that your boyfriend is so eager to break up with you and never see you again that he didn't just stop at faking his own death but faked being turned into a freaking antelope, believing he might have actually been turned into an antelope doesn't seem so crazy," Fayne conceded. "Out of curiosity, did he ever give you any indication that he was, um, unhappy with your relationship?"

"Well I did ask him if he was ever going to ask me to marry him the other day," Marga admitted. "I mean, I'm really happy with him but we've been together for awhile and I really need to know if we have a future. I won't stay with him forever if he won't settle down with me and I deserve an honest answer. Surely if the answer was no he could have just told me and not done something like this!"

"Some guys are kind of assholes," Fayne confided. "Some girls, too, but that's not really relevant here. And some really hate awkward conversations and I imagine an awkward breakup would be even worse. If he's not actually an antelope, you should just break up with him."

"I do hope he's an antelope, though," Marga said wistfully. "I mean, I wouldn't have the slightest idea o how to turn him back but I'd like to think that my boyfriend wouldn't leave me to mourn him for having been turned into an antelope for the rest of my life."

"I'll see what I can do," Fayne said.

"My grandmother did tell me about sprites that change people into animals and vice versa," Marga said. "I haven't seen it myself but I did tell him about it."

"I met a human who had once been a wolf and helped him turn back," Fayne said. "So it does happen. And if the antelope, Oreyn or not, is still wearing that necklace he should be pretty easy to find."

"Okay, go find him and see what's what," Marga instructed.

Though she should probably know better by now, Fayne asked, "You're not going to look? He's your boyfriend."

"Possibly not for much longer," Marga said, "and I would but I have my whole camp set up. Do you know how long it would take to disassemble this? And then I'd only have to set it up again. No, it's better if you just go alone. And this way you can find me easily if you do get any word. Or at least tell me that you're giving up so I don't have to wait here forever."

"I can do that," Fayne agreed, setting off again.

She was mildly horrified when, after killing a Jotun, she found the silver necklace resting on the remains of an antelope being cooked over a fire. She quickly grabbed it out, mildly burning her hand, and stared at it.

"Oh no. Oh this is bad. I mean, I know I don't actually believe that Oreyn was turned into an antelope but just the same…what if he was?" Fayne asked, panicking slightly. "It would be bad enough if Marga's boyfriend had to stay an antelope forever and she just kept him as a pet or lost track of him entirely but to know that like five minutes later he turned into some Jotun's dinner? Agarth was right, this really is horrifying!"

"Help!" she heard a voice calling out suddenly. "Can anybody help me?"

"Well I'd like a moment to process this," Fayne grumbled. "But fine. Whatever." She followed the voice to a man in a cage in the camp. "But honestly, if your name isn't Oreyn then I'm not even interested."

"Then it's a relief, isn't it, that I am, in fact, Oreyn," Oreyn said.

"And this silver necklace would be yours, then?" Fayne queried innocently, holding it up.

This time, he hesitated. "Ye-es…"

"Would you care to explain why you faked being turned into an antelope for your girlfriend?" Fayne demanded, crossing her arms.

"Look, stop looking at me like that!" Oreyn said uncomfortably. "It's not so bad, really. Marga's great and all but she's getting a little too attached for my tastes so I needed an excuse to get away. She even used the 'm' word!"

"Mudblood?"

Oreyn shuddered. "Marriage."

"Can I just…can I ask you something?" Fayne asked. "I talked to Marga. She seems like a pretty reasonable, if superstitious, woman. And given that I've actually seen sprites curse someone into a new form, I can't even blame her for believing that they do. If you didn't want to date her anymore and weren't ready to settle down then why the fuck didn't you just tell her that and break up with her like a normal human being? Why do you have to traumatize her for life?"

"Hey, I don't think she'd be traumatized for life," Oreyn protested.

"She wouldn't be if you just broke up with her!" Fayne cried. "But you didn't. You made her think you were an antelope. How was she supposed to get over something like that?"

"I don't know, I didn't think…it wouldn't bother me all that much if she was turned into one!" Oreyn shot back. "Not that I'd probably even believe it."

"That's because you're a terrible person," Fayne said, disgustedly. "What did she see in you, anyway?"

"All I wanted was to avoid making a scene when I broke up with her. Normally this isn't a problem. I just leave one day and never come back and no one's ever come looking for me. I figure they don't care either or see the writing on the wall but Marga's different. She said the 'm' word! She's probably crazy obsessed with me by now and would never give me a moment's rest unless I did what I did. Really, I'm the victim here."

"You're an asshole," Fayne said coldly. "Marga deserves better. I'll let you out of this cage but I'm telling Marga exactly what happened. Maybe she comes after you but if she does it'll be to tell you exactly what she thinks about all of this and not because she's desperately in love with you and can't bear to let you go."

"Okay but you could just let me out and then not tell Marga?" Oreyn pleaded.

"No."

Fayne opened the cage and Oreyn scampered off. She quickly returned to Marga. If she wanted to chase after Oreyn, for whatever reason, she didn't want to give him too much of a head start.

"So?" Marga asked anxiously. "Did you find him?"

"I found him alright," Fayne said grimly.

"From the way you said that he must either be dead or you were right about him just being the worst person ever," Marga said, biting her lip.

"He's the worst person ever," Fayne said bluntly. "I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this. He was captured by Jotun and was probably going to be eaten. The antelope with the necklace had already been cooked so if we hadn't found him…He just ran off. He doesn't want you to know. He couldn't think of how to break up with you like a normal person. He's not ready for commitment."

"I'm probably going to kill him," Marga said, sounding very calm. "Which way did you say he went?"

"That way," Fayne said, pointing after him. "I'm going to advise against actually killing him since I don't think he quite deserves it – though he comes close – but I've got things to do so you do what you feel you have to."

Marga nodded, pressed some money into her hand, and ran off.

Fayne continued on and soon ran into a fae.

"The time of the flowering is upon on," the fae announced. "Only my flowering partner is not here and I do not know what has delayed him. Without Boderill, there will be no joy and no laughter."

"The flowering?" Fayne asked suspiciously. "What's that?"

"Oh, how can one even describe that? It is the most perfect thing ever," the fae said, enraptured.

"Okay, just so we're clear…are you talking about sex?" Fayne asked.

"Sex? Wh-why would I-" the fae spluttered. "No."

"Well I'm just saying that it sounded like it and now we have that out of the way," Fayne said.

"What must you think of me if you thought I was going on with a complete stranger, albeit one that is my king, about how I want sex?" the fae asked, aghast. "My name is Osduin and I can assure you that that is not it. It is an important ceremony we must – platonically – enact every spring. I tried asking that moral girl for help but all she cared about was her lost friend and punched me when I told her that this ceremony is far more important than him. Would you be willing to take part in it instead? I fear that Boderill is a little dead right now and so can't help."

"Well as long as this doesn't involve my death I suppose I can help you," Fayne said. "It doesn't involve my death, does it?"

"The first thing I need you to do is find five chrysalae, they're sort of like seeds, and go plant them in Brunuath Hollow. I'll be waiting for you there."

On her way to gather the seeds, Fayne stumbled across a dead body that further investigation revealed to be Turin's. She took the scroll – and everything else – and headed back to Jedda.

"Oh, Turin's dead," she said, looking almost upset. "But at least you got the scroll. He didn't die for nothing. Well, I suppose I'll be going now."

"Really?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "You don't even care what happened to Marga and Oreyn?"

"Why would I?" Jedda asked rhetorically. "They were no help and just went off to have sex anyway."

"Actually, while Marga might have gone off to do that and while I wouldn't put it past Oreyn to do it as well, Oreyn was too much of an ass to break up with Marga and so faked turning into an antelope and got captured by Jotun. He ran off and Marga went after him so she could explain to him why he is the scum of the Earth," Fayne corrected. "You're kind of a terrible expedition leader."

"You didn't realize that when we all got separated and Turin, the only one I really cared about, got killed?" Jedda asked rhetorically.

"Well those could have been mistakes or bad luck. It's the not caring and deciding it's over without even asking me if I'd seen half your expedition that makes you really bad at this," Fayne replied.

Jedda shrugged. "Ah, well."

Well if she was cool with her incompetence then at least she was self-aware.

Fayne headed off to the caves she was supposed to meet Osduin in.

"Excellent, you're here," Osduin greeted her. "I need you to plant the five chrysalae in a circle and stand in the middle of that circle."

Fayne did as she was bidden in good faith but the moment she stepped into the middle of the circle, five sprites appeared and attacked her. She glanced over at Osduin who didn't seem to react so it fell upon her to kill them all.

When she was done, Osduin came up to her, frowning in confusion. "I don't get it, though. You're not dead. You should be dead."

Well that explained why he hadn't helped her, at least.

"I can't believe you just tried to kill me!"

"I didn't try to kill you! It was part of the ballad! You agreed to it!" Osduin said defensively.

"I'm your king and you tried to kill me. That's practically treason, you know," Fayne insisted.

"Firstly, it was the sprites who attacked you and you did agree," Osduin said stubbornly.

"Yeah, I said I'd help if it didn't involve my death but you knew it would and you didn't tell me but let me help anyway," Fayne said angrily. "And, despite being your king, I'm not a fae and wouldn't return to life! Probably. It's incredibly unlikely it would happen again is what I'm saying. And even aside from that, you didn't actually tell me what the ballad entailed! So even if I were cool dying and would safely return to life I didn't know I was supposed to just stand there and let the sprites kill me!"

"It didn't occur to me you wouldn't know the ballad," Osduin countered.

"Not even when I started fighting back against the sprites instead of letting them kill me?" Fayne demanded. "I'm just saying, maybe there's a reason your partner isn't here after all. And what's your part in this ballad? It seems the gathering of my killers and growing them and getting killed is all my doing."

"Um, well, we hadn't gotten to that part yet and now we can't because they're dead," Osduin said awkwardly. "But even though that didn't go as well as I'd hoped, at least we got it done at all. Sort of. So take this gem of cultivation. It can be equipped to any bit of armor and adds plus one to the first two tiers of might, finesse, and sorcery abilities."

"I wonder how much I can sell it for," Fayne said.

"Now this whole thing has been very awkward so I must insist that you leave," Osduin said firmly.

Fayne narrowed her eyes at him. "Rude."

She did leave, though, since she had nothing more to do in the cave. She made a mental note not to agree to any more ballads unless she was sure they wouldn't involve killing her.

She returned instead to Ysa.

A fae was there to greet her but, to her consternation, she didn't know if it was the same one from last time that wouldn't let her in as long as she had Tuatha actively hunting her.

"Welcome to the Gardens of Ysa," he said politely. "I am Chancellor Erawn."

"Please tell me I can go in this time," Fayne pleaded.

"I do not sense that you are being stalked any longer so by all means," Erawn said, gesturing for her to come in. "Normally mortals are restricted in where they are allowed to go when they are even allowed to be here but, as the king of the House of Ballads, you may go wherever you please."

"That's convenient," Fayne said. "I probably would have just done that anyway but at least this way I have permission."

Fayne was sure that there was a lot to explore and she'd probably want to do that later but right now all she wanted to do was try and get some answers and confirm the vague theories she had started to put together about her supposedly fateless status.

A fae (who was presumably their king because he was sitting surrounded by guards) was lounging in a very un-king-like manner when she approached and set down the codex on a table. She just sort of wandered in and he stood and approached the table to look at it. That was really terrible security. Perhaps he was expecting her. If so he really could have made some sort of effort to meet her at least part of the way.

He touched the codex and threw his head back. "Conceived in chaos, birthed in stolen magic, torn from Fate."

Fayne blinked at him. "Okay." Was he high? "Can you help me? I don't exactly remember why I need this deciphered but since I've put a moderate amount of energy into this, please see what you can do."

Suddenly there was a flash of white light and she saw what appeared to be…the Well of Souls?

"Child of two fathers, treacheries of treacheries," the king continued.

"Wait, child of two fathers?" Fayne asked, stunned. "Is that me? Do I have two fathers? When did this happen? Are they still around? Can you actually tell me who I am?"

"Winter is broken. The puppet king upon his throne bringing flattery and lies. The power that grows in him is not his own." She could see a dead fae and a living one sitting upon a throne. He opened his mouth and silently screamed making him look quite deranged. Was that the puppet king? "In the east it did begin and that it will end. From behind the veil she screams. Madness and rage. Madness and rage."

The light faded and the king looked down. It was kind of awkward that she'd never bothered to get his name.

"We realize that this may be confusing for you," the king said gently. "Fate, like fae, cannot be changed. But you are a mortal who is not subject to Fate and the Tuatha are fae who have changed a lot. Gadflow says that the Tuatha are the work of a god. If that's the case, what does that make you?"

"Well are we necessarily taking the word of Gadflow seriously? He sounds like a pretentious jumped-up dictator who for some reason wants to kill everybody," Fayne said. "And even if he were right about them I don't see what it has to do with me since they are still bound by Fate and I am not. And actually, the bit about the Tuatha changing and me being resistant to Fate is actually quite easy. It's that whole little rambling prophecy or whatever that's confusing me. I don't speak cryptic. Like at all. Basically if you need me to figure out the meaning of something, like if it's a riddle, I just can't do it. My brain breaks when I try."

"Isn't it obvious?" Alyn asked, arching an eyebrow.

Fayne turned in surprise and saw that she and Agarth were both standing around. Wow she was not observant. "Not really, no. That's why I just said that I don't get it."

"Well I think it's obvious," Agarth told her. "Of course, I'm a Fateweaver so I'm used to making sense of the cryptic. I'm curious how you managed that, Alyn."

Alyn just shrugged and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "I'm naturally talented."

"Does anyone want to share with me what they understood or would the self-congratulatory party like to continue?" Fayne asked, annoyed.

"Well I, for one, would like to continue with the party," Agarth replied.

"Basically, you came back from the dead and aren't beholden to Fate anymore. The Winter King was assassinated by former court jester, Gadflow, and he took power. The only reason anyone's putting up with this is because he wields the power of the prismere and he claims his god gave him that power. You have to go kill Gadflow and deal with his power source in order to end this war and it has to be you since he's fated to win. And whoever his god is is super crazy."

"Who knows? Perhaps it's Tirnoch," Agarth suggested.

Alyn smiled tightly. "Perhaps. Who knows?"

"Okay, you have got to be making that up," Fayne said. "There's no way you got all of that from what he said."

"Actually, that's exactly what I meant," the king said.

"So then why didn't you just say it like that?" Fayne demanded.

The king shrugged. "I assumed you'd get it. And Alyn and Agarth were here to explain it to you anyway. Now, I'm very grateful that you've decided to go personally end this war and save the world. I've met a lot of heroes. In fact, I'm a hero. Heroes are pretty great. But there's something to be said about being a hero when you know you're going to succeed or trying and failing when you have no choice to as well. We all saw what happened to Wencen, did we not? You are a much more amazing person for choosing to do this."

Fayne laughed. "Choosing? When did I choose to do any of this? I never signed up for this fateless one gig."

"As far as you know," Agarth pointed out. "You're kind of amnesiac."

"You did kind of sign up for it a little," Alyn said. "I mean, you didn't know this would happen but you did…but that's a story for another time."

Fayne glared at her. "Every time!"

"It will be worth it when I do get around to telling you, promise."

"No one is forcing you to save the world," the king pointed out.

"No," Fayne agreed. "But if I don't do it then the world is destroyed. I can't just let that happen. It would be terrible for me, if nothing else. And I'm really not a bad person, much less the worst person in the world for doing nothing when I know I'm the only one who can save the world."

"Oh, I don't know," Agarth disagreed. "I think the people ending the world would be worse but you're right that you'd still be right up there."

"So you are going to save the world, right?" the king asked. "Because as much as you may resent this being framed as a choice when it's the only good choice, we do still need you to go out and do it."

Fayne sighed. "Fine, I'll do it. I'll go…singlehandedly end this ten-year war that is supposed to kill everybody. Honestly, this all sounds so ridiculous. How is this my life?"

Alyn looked like she really wanted to answer that but kept quiet.

"In the meantime, take 8000 gold for your trouble," the king said. "Also, be fully aware that you may be the most amazing mortal to have ever existed."

Fayne smiled. "Suddenly I'm feeling a lot better about all of this."

"Talk to your friends," the king urged.

"Yeah, I don't really need you to tell me to plan my next move with my refuse to be followers," Fayne said, turning away from him. She approached Alyn first. "So what's next on the agenda?"

"Well we can't get to Gadflow until we get to the Tuatha's side of the world," Alyn said practically. "And we can't do that without getting totally hammered right now. We'll need to break the siege of Mel Senshir and get the war back on track since right now everyone's mostly just sitting around and occasionally dying. In order to do that, we'll need to go find General Tilera and get her to come back so we can break people out of their stupor and try an actual attack. I'll tell you more when you come find me at the village of Emaire."

"What? No fair," Fayne protested. "Why can't you just tell me now?"

"Because you'd probably forget everything and you'd either walk in there blind or I'd have to explain everything all over again," Alyn explained. "You do have an alarming habit of never showing up anywhere at a decent time."

"Hey, it's hardly my fault literally everyone needs help," Fayne said.

"And they are literally all fated to fail without you?" Alyn asked skeptically.

Fayne shrugged. "How would I know? I'm not a Fateweaver. Though considering most of them aren't even trying but just standing around complaining…probably."

"Well maybe instead of clearing up misunderstandings or picking flowers for people you could try saving their lives from the Tuatha," Alyn hinted.

"My memory really isn't that bad," Fayne said loudly, changing the subject.

"Okay, prove it," Alyn challenged. "What's the name of the king you just spoke to?"

Fayne made a face. "That is so not fair! I'm nearly positive that no one ever told me!"

"The fact that you didn't even ask…" Alyn said pointedly. "And it's Titarion, by the way."

"I'm not even going to remember that."

Alyn gave her a pointed look and then rolled her eyes. "So go find me in Emaire and we'll talk."

Fayne glanced over at Agarth. "What about you?"

"I think Hughes might still be alive," Agarth revealed.

Fayne's eyes widened. "Really? But you were so sure he was dead."

"That's only because he was, in fact, Fated to die," Agarth explained. "But now that I know that theoretically it is possible to have your fate changed with your direct intervention, I suspect the fact that Hughes briefly met you before doing a suicide charge for you means that he is alive. Nay, I do not even suspect it! I know that it is true!"

"Well he's certainly confident," Alyn said dryly.

"Did you check his fate?" Fayne asked.

Agarth waved his hand impatiently. "Oh, what's the point in that? I've largely given up Fateweaving."

"You read the fate of Didenhil," Fayne pointed out.

"Only because I was drunk and bored and you kept me waiting for months on end," Agarth countered. "I don't need to check to see if he's alive because it's really the only explanation."

"I feel like I'm going to be sent on a wild goose chase," Fayne complained.

Alyn shrugged. "Who knows? He could be right. It's worth checking out while you're avoiding actually doing anything to end the war, isn't it?"

Fayne sighed. "Fine. What do I have to do?"

"Nothing much," Agarth assured her. "Just go find his patron, Templar Octienne, in the Hollowlands."

"I'll think about it if I'm ever in the area," Fayne said.

She left the area and almost immediately ran straight into a highly nervous-looking stranger.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, your highness," the fae apologized.

"Who are you?"

"I am Squire Brio," Brio introduced. "So sorry to have bothered you."

Maybe it was the manners and maybe it was the fact he knew and respected her title but Fayne decided to throw him a bone. "Was there anything you needed help with?"

"Oh, I couldn't possibly bother you with my trivial problems!" Brio objected.

"Come on. I insist. Besides," she said, grinning, "if it's really that annoying I don't have to do anything about them."

"Well, okay then," Brio said slowly. "I have to present four squabbling dignitaries in order but they can't decide on a proper order. I've tried talking to them and I just keep getting confused. See, I wrote down on this piece of paper everything that they said."

Fayne glanced at the paper he held out to her. "We clearly have two options here. One, take the matter to Alyn or Agarth if they're still here. Two, call the dignitaries before you and we'll sort it out."

Brio looked surprised. "You're not going to run all over Ysa looking for them personally?"

Fayne pointed to herself. "King of the House of Ballads. They can come to me."

Brio sent off some messages and twenty minutes later they were all before her.

"What was so important?" one of them asked, annoyed.

"Okay, here's the deal. We need to know which order you prefer to be presented in," Fayne told them. "Now you can either work the order out amongst yourself and let us know or I swear I will pick at random and I'm kind of terrible at these things, actually, so the odds are good I'll pick the worst possible order."

The fae looked at each other and quickly huddled together. In another twenty minutes, they had decided that first it would be the Great Huntress Hartwen, then the Warlord Whenery, then Viscount Setter the Allseer, and finally the Grand Faemage Gorrnet.

"Wow, that was so…simple! Brilliant!" Brio gushed. "Here, take this gold!"

"Gladly," Fayne said graciously, accepting it. "But for the record, that probably won't work for you since you have to work here and I really don't and couldn't care less how this worked out. Still, glad to be of service and maybe next time this bunch will be less difficult."

"I can only hope," Brio said wryly.

She continued exploring and soon came upon someone else who was looking hopefully at her.

"Yes?"

"I was just thinking it's a shame that Ysa is going to die," the fae said. "My name is Nomeron, by the way. I know who you are, of course, your grace."

"Ysa is going to die?" Fayne asked alarmed. "Is this because of the Gnarsh thing or the Tuatha thing? Or is there some other thing that I don't know about?"

"Oh, you can take your Gnarshes and your Tuathas and forget about them," Nomeron said dismissively. "We're going to all wither away and die because, even as the magic in this land grows, the magic from the fae diminishes."

"So is it really that magic is growing or that it's staying constant but as the mortal races get it there is less of it for the fae?" Fayne asked quizzically.

"I don't know and it really doesn't matter," Nomeron replied. "The biggest issue is that the water levels in the Font are really low."

"Wait a second," Fayne said, holding up a hand. "Are you saying you are being all doom and gloom on me because you need to raise some water levels?"

"It's very important water!" Nomeron insisted. "It's the source of all fae magic!"

Fayne sighed. "What do you need me to do?"

"Collect water from each of the five sacred pools surrounding Ysa and use it to break the water lock thus allowing the water to be raised," Nomeron said solemnly.

"Well at least it's not dispelling," Fayne reasoned. "I was almost really worried there for a second."

She moved on and a little while later she found herself in what she supposed was the tavern.

"We sell very good ale," the man assured her, "but if you're looking for Victor's Brew then you'll have to take your business elsewhere since we don't sell that."

"That's nice. I don't even know what that is but that's nice," Fayne said. "I'd like-"

"My Asker's Ale used to be the preferred beverage here but every day I get more cancelled orders because nobody is capable of drinking more than one type of drink," the man said disgustedly. Was this Asker? She was just going to assume that this was Asker. "My brother and I are working on a new drink but it requires something…special."

"That's fascinating, really, but actually no it's not so I'm leaving," Fayne said.

"Wait! You could help us! If you do I'll see to it that the merchants of Ysa treat you well," Asker said enticingly.

Fayne laughed. "Please, like I ever buy anything from merchants."

"If you talk to the fae apothecary, Jakasen, he can probably set you up with the super-rare and tasty but kind of worthless Bristletongue seeds," Asker continued.

"Yeah, there is no way that you're going to convince me that this is important," Fayne said disgustedly. "If you really care that much, go talk to him yourself. Goodbye."

After she finished saving the fae from the terrible magic-draining low water levels, Fayne made sure to stop by the diplomats and purchase the title of 'Warden of Light' to add to her growing title collection. She would have preferred to get a nice Alfar title but 'Dark Hunter' was too obvious, 'Muse of Fate' was so appalling wrong for her, and 'Master Mystic' just sounded pretentious. Maybe 'Warden of Light' did, too, but she liked it.

She left Ysa and started to head towards…places she hadn't really been except for that one time she went to Rathir. She was approaching some town she'd never heard of that wasn't that far from Ysa when a very well-muscled and shirtless blue alfar stopped her.

"Excuse me, would you mind doing me a favor?"

"I suppose not. I do everyone else favors," Fayne said. "Except I finally said no to this one guy because his quest was just too stupid to be endured. What do you want?"

"I have a bunch of personal possessions to sell. Unfortunately, everyone in Ayten thinks I'm a thief."

"Oh, Ayten? Is that where we are?" Fayne asked.

The alfar gave her a strange look. "How can you not know that?"

Fayne shrugged. "I don't always pay a great deal of attention to the world around me."

"Quite. I'd like you to sell some of my possessions for me. You pay me and get the possessions and then sell them to others in turn and keep the profit," the alfar offered.

"That does sound mighty tempting. Except for the part where I have to track down buyers for you. Can't I just buy them all and trash them?" Fayne asked.

"Well you might want to at least sell them to a merchant or something but other than that, why should I care what you do with your possessions? You get my bag of silverware, my kerchief, my daggers, and my ring. That will be 1,100 gold."

"I feel like I'm getting ripped off," Fayne complained, handing over the gold.

"You should probably polish the items a bit and they'll be worth more to merchants," the alfar advised.

Fayne stared at him. "What part of 'I can't be bothered to find individual buyers and so am just buying all this myself' makes you think I'd be willing to do that?"

"It's just a suggestion," the alfar said. "Thank you kindly for your help. Now, off to return to the war!"

Fayne blinked as he started strolling off. "If you're going to war then why in the world would you have given me your daggers?"


	15. Chapter 15

"Someone must go to Erathell!" a woman was calling out at everyone who passed. "Really important. Ayten is doing awful. We've got to get a blessing or things will continue to get awful."

Fayne tried to sneak by but of course the woman saw her anyway.

"There are a bunch of windstones, you see, and if you play them in the correct order then Ayten will get a blessing," the woman explained.

"And what happens if you play them in the wrong order?" Fayne asked. "It doesn't work? Do you only get a certain amount of time to try?"

"No, you can try as many times as you want," the woman said. "But every time you play it in the wrong order you get attacked by a Niskaru. Most people are a bit put off by this."

Fayne shrugged. "Well it doesn't bother me. I mean, I'd be frustrated if I got it wrong a million times and had to fight a million Niskaru but I've already killed a million of them so I'd be fine."

"I…feel like maybe you're exaggerating slightly," the woman said.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine, I only killed nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine of them. I was just rounding up."

"So…you'll do it?" the woman asked hopefully.

"Well this seems a pretty simple way to protect a town. I've done harder. But why won't you go?" Fayne asked. "You're worried about messing up?"

"I would certainly be defenseless against even one Niskaru let alone a million," the woman agreed. "But also I don't think I'm worthy. It has to be you."

Fayne groaned. "What, is the town fated to never be blessed?"

"I don't think so," the woman said, frowning.

"Then what makes you think it must be me?" Fayne challenged.

"You're the only one who stopped and considered doing it and you appear to not be afraid of all the Niskaru you might have to fight," the woman explained.

"So how does the song go?"

The woman hesitated. "Well…"

"You don't know, do you?" Fayne asked.

"Not really. But think of all the Niskaru you'll get to kill!"

"I…don't think that's actually supposed to be a positive," Fayne said. She decided to explore the town some more before going off to visit the windstones.

On the second floor of a shop, she found a harried-looking blonde woman. "Hello, my name is Sigra Thorin. If you're here to shop you should talk to Askel since he doesn't let me touch the books, especially after my little mistake."

"I'm not here to shop," Fayne said. "I was just bored and poking around and definitely not going to steal anything if that's what you were wondering."

"I wasn't wondering anything before but now I kind of am," Sigra said.

"Why don't you tell me more about this little mistake since you felt the need to randomly and unnecessarily bring it up in front of me?" Fayne said brightly.

Sigra hesitated. "I don't know. It kind of makes me look really stupid."

"Yeah but you don't actually know anything about me so I'm a great person to confide in," Fayne said invitingly. "Plus, I don't know, I'm in a rare feeling helpful mood."

"I kind of failed at basic math and wrote all these invoices out to customers and sent them off without double-checking or letting anyone else look at them," Sigra explained. "And now we're going to lose a lot of money. We can't just correct the mistake as people might say 'Ha ha, I got the first invoice and I'm paying that and no take-backs.' Or people might think we're incompetent because of how incompetent this was. I don't think anybody has bothered to actually look at let alone pay their invoice yet so could you break into everyone's place and steal it back? And don't let my husband know?"

"Don't let your husband know that I'm stealing the invoices back?"

Sigra shook her head. "Don't let my husband know that we're even having invoice issues in the first place."

"But wait…you said that your husband is especially not wanting you to help with the business because of this mistake but he doesn't even know about it?"

Sigra nodded. "Yes."

"How does that even work?" Fayne demanded.

"It just does," Sigra said. "Hopefully by correcting this mistake without him ever finding out anything about it, it will somehow convince him to let me help again as I'm not incompetent."

"But what you said has convinced me that you kind of are," Fayne protested.

Sigra narrowed her eyes. "Does it really matter to you what happens to this place?"

"No but it probably should to you."

"I'll be more careful next time or something," Sigra promised.

"Well as it happens, I already found all five invoices," Fayne said.

"Is there any point in wondering why you have those?" Sigra asked.

Fayne shook her head. "There really isn't. Now I don't see how this is really going to change anything for you since the whole point is for Askel not to find out but…yah, I guess?"

"Here, let me give you some gold for helping me," Sigra said, going over to a drawer and pulling some out.

"Are you sure you just want to give that to me?" Fayne asked. "You wouldn't like to maybe count it first? Out loud where I can make sure it's right?"

Sigra merely glared at her.

Fayne went out and wandered around killing bandits (and collecting their armbands as proof she killed them for some quest board even though she was sure as many as she killed there would always be others) until she found a circle of stones. She tried to activate them but just ended up getting a Niskaru. And then she ended up getting a couple dozen more Niskaru as she forgot to keep track of which ways she already tried and it took her quite some time to literally just stumble upon the right answer.

Then she had a weird feeling and a voice asked if she wanted to accept a blessing. That sounded like a good idea to her and so she agreed.

She came upon a farm and was just going to walk past it when suddenly a wild-looking woman rushed up to her. There was something about her eyes. "Draw your weapon, stranger!"

Fayne shrugged and did so. "Okay, now what? Please tell me you're not trying to hold me up? Though if you were why would you request that I armed myself? Are we under attack? I don't see anybody. Are they invisible? Does my complete lack of stealth skills actually mean something for once?"

"No, I just…no," the woman said, clearly struggling. "I am Alrette Rond and I have been driven mad."

"Oh have you?" Fayne asked politely, not sure what else to say. "That's too bad."

"The river brings madness!"

If that were true it would be quite alarming but, since Alrette was self-reportedly mad, how could she ever possibly trust that?

"Cranalt. A strange man, Jenniker, went up to Cranalt and now I'm mad and it's poisoning the grain and I had to lock my husband in a cage since he's madder than me and you need to fix the river!"

"Yeah but…even if I accept that a strange man did go up to Cranalt and shortly afterwards you went crazy that doesn't mean he necessarily had anything to do with it," Fayne pointed out. "Maybe it's just a coincidence."

"The grain is being sent to the troops," Alrette said pointedly.

Fayne groaned. "So I cannot in good conscience risk driving anybody who eats this mad, especially people who are actually out there trying to do something about the Tuatha while I'm running around farms. But wait, is the grain already shipped out? Will they go mad but then recover once it gets out of their system? This could still cause a lot of death and destruction."

"The river!"

"Oh, right. Don't try and have serious discussions about long-term consequences and collateral damage with mad people," Fayne said, nodding. "Well, don't worry. If you can still make out what I'm saying, I'll go sort this problem out for you. Hopefully this 'Cranalt' is on my map."

As she continued on, she tripped over a sleeping alfar and he quickly rose to his feet.

"Who are you?" he demanded.

"I'm Fayne," Fayne introduced. "Uh, sorry about that. I do not always pay even cursory attention to my surroundings. Who are you?"

"I am Niaham Kent of the Rathir Kents," Niaham boasted, sticking his chest out.

"Yeah, never heard of you," Fayne said bluntly.

Niaham looked a bit put-out by that. "I assume that, unlike me, you are here by choice."

Fayne considered that. " 'Choice' is a bit strong. But I guess there's really nowhere else I'd rather be either so there's that. How are you not here by choice? Did you get kidnapped and forcibly dragged here? We're not near the front – I think – so you can't have been conscripted."

"I have been ordered to come here," Niaham complained dramatically. "By my heartless supervisors up at Warsworn. They want me to kill literally every single beast in the area. By myself. Do you have any idea how quickly they respawn?"

"I do, yeah," Fayne said sympathetically. "Just…wow. Seriously, who did you piss off anyway?"

"A great many people," Niaham said glumly. "I'm very wealthy, however, so I was thinking I could pay you to kill them for me."

"Words cannot describe how unappealing I find that offer."

"But I'm too lazy to do this!" Niaham protested.

"Your problem, not mine. This doesn't really seem important and just because you have orders to be here doesn't mean it wasn't your choice to follow them. The Warsworn don't have a kill deserters policy," Fayne pointed out. "Besides, technically I'm your superior anyway since I'm a Truesworn."

Niaham looked incredibly uncomfortable. "And by 'can I pay you to do my job for me' I actually meant…April Fool's?"

"What the hell is an April Fool?"

"I just…never mind," Niaham said, sinking down to the ground.

Not too far off, she found a gnome who called out to her as she passed by. "Do you have any spare time on your hands, random stranger? I could really use some help with my current research."

Fayne paused. "What makes you think I'm not some sort of brigand here to slit your throat?"

The gnome shrugged. "Well if you were, would me calling out to you influence you one way or the other?"

Fayne shrugged. "Could be."

The gnome laughed. "My name is Lanus Davril and I am a mage with the Scholia Arcana so I think I can handle myself just fine with lowly brigands. Now might be a good time to ask you if you're one of them."

"In light of the information you have just given me, no I am not," Fayne said solemnly. "What kind of research are you doing? Will I need to sign a waiver?"

"If you like," Lanus told her. "I am working on tracking the slaying of beasts. I have vials of clear liquid which, in theory, will change color when you have killed a certain number of them. Interested?"

"That does sound like it could be really cool," Fayne said diplomatically. "But I don't see literally any use for this. If it could detect the presence of certain beasts and the color gets darker the more there are than that would be something. Not something I would ever need but good for non-warriors. I'm not really much of a theory person and this sounds annoying so pass."

"But all you would have to do is carry it around with you while you just go about killing things as part of your average day," Lanus protested.

"I have a very limited inventory and I can't imagine I'll be able to carry around an infinite number of backpacks by myself," Fayne replied.

"It won't take up any space!"

Fayne stared at him. "Of course it will. It's a vial of liquid. Or multiple vials, I guess. And, unless you've enchanted them, they'll probably spill or break. This is not of interest to me so I am leaving."

A few moments later, something that did interest her a bit more turned up in the form of an alfar who ran up to her. "Help, stranger, I am in fear for my life!"

Fayne waited but no one appeared to be chasing him. "Immediate fear?"

"Well that depends on your definition of 'immediate'," the man said. "I seem to have lost them for the moment but they'll be back. They're always back. I'm being stalked by faer gorta who are out for my blood, you see."

"That sounds like quite the story," Fayne said. "And since you want my help as, I guess, the only armed person in the area who isn't already off begging others to help them – though I have quite a few quests I've undertaken myself – I kind of want to hear it."

"My name is Faitir Scaith. I'm from a very old family-"

"Most people are," Fayne interrupted. "Something about all people being descended from somewhere."

"My family had power and remembered their history and stayed together," Faitir said pointedly. "A long time ago, I had this total asshole of a relative who was offered a lot of power if he gave the fae the souls of his family."

Fayne looked horrified. "He didn't."

"Totally did. Of course, he only thought it meant his immediate family so maybe he just hated all of them. But he was wrong. It was everyone who shares Scaith blood. I've been hunted my entire life and now I believe I am literally the only Scaith in the world so I'm the only target. Anywhere I go, I am hunted. I try to stay out of populated areas but I can't do this forever. As you can imagine, this is a rather pressing concern for me so I'd like to get it settled quickly."

"Well what can you do?" Fayne asked. "I don't think killing all faer gorta is very practical. Are all faer gorta your dead relatives?"

Faitir nodded. "Sad but true. I don't know of any way to break the curse but I'm kind of hoping that if do a ritual to banish myself from my family then the faer gorta will decide we're no longer related and they no longer have to kill me."

"It sounds like kind of a long-shot," Fayne told him.

"Perhaps," Faitir conceded. "But it's the best shot I have."

"Then let's go," Fayne said. "But how did you even survive all these years, I'm assuming you're at least thirty, when you were being constantly hunted by faer gorta? Especially when you were so young?"

Faitir looked a little annoyed. "Haven't you ever heard of something called 'suspension of disbelief'?"

"Oh, no, I have," Fayne confirmed. "I just find myself incapable of it."

"Well try," Faitir ordered before marching off. Fayne followed him to an old creepy building which was predictably infested with his dead relatives.

They fought their way through the tunnels until Faitir stopped suddenly.

"This is it, the Solemn Bell. I'll need several minutes where I'll probably be attacked where I must state my intention of leading the Scaith family."

Fayne started to nod then stopped as she processed what he just said. "I'm sorry, did you just say leading? I thought you were planning on leaving it."

"I want to lead them into battle," Faitir corrected her. He winced. "I mean, lead them to peace."

"Still not getting any 'leaving' vibes from this and if the intention was to free them why would you lie to me?" Fayne demanded. "You're totally going to just get your own personal army of faer gorta, aren't you?"

"If I was – and I admit nothing – then I feel I kind of deserve it after what they've put me through," Faitir claimed. "Also, it's self-defense so they can't kill me."

"I just don't feel I can trust you anymore," Fayne complained.

"That's fine," Faitir said agreeably. "Just defend me from the faer gorta, will you?"

Fayne growled but Faitir promptly sat down and started mediating and the faer gorta came out to attack so she had little choice but to do as he asked. She didn't trust him anymore but that didn't mean she necessarily wanted to see him die.

Faitir stood up a few moments later then led the way to the library.

He was looking progressively more nervous as they got closer. Finally he stopped. "Ah, I can't go in there! The Scrivener is in there!"

He waited for her reaction but she really had to disappoint him there. "I'm sorry, what's the Scrivener?"

Faitir slumped. "It loses something if you didn't grow up hearing tales of it and hiding under the bed."

"Well, what can you do?" Fayne asked, shrugging.

"When he was alive he sought the codex to use it to protect our family from becoming faer gorta once we died. He failed and became the worst of them all for his efforts upon his somewhat premature death. I can't face him."

"You realize that you're no longer a child, right?" Fayne asked, unimpressed. "You can face down the boogeyman."

Faitir stubbornly crossed his arms. "Not going to."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Oh, whatever." She boldly charged into the room, had to walk around for bit exploring before she was even attacked, and soon the Scrivener was beaten to death with its own fate.

"Ah, excellent, now I can be in here," Faitir said cheerfully.

"You are such a coward," Fayne accused.

"Why do you think I want my own army?" Faitir asked rhetorically.

"So you're no longer hiding that?"

Faitir smiled wanly. "It seems a bit pointless now, doesn't it? Look, I'm going to take the codex and find my name in it. It's self-updating, you see, or people would have just stopped using it a long time ago and stopped turning into faer gorta. If we get attacked – which we probably will – you'll need to take care of it."

"How long could it possibly take to find you?" Fayne demanded. "I assume it will go by alphabetical order in which case it would just be first names or by birth in which you'd be at the end. It will only take you a minute to find."

"Granted but have you ever tried to look something up while fighting for your life?" Faitir countered. "It's rather inadvisable."

Of course, when Fayne was finishing fighting off the faer gorta, she noticed that Faitir had finished some time ago and hadn't seen the need to help her in the slightest. Somehow she wasn't surprised.

"So my birth candle isn't here," Faitir complained. "I cannot complete the ritual without it. The First, the one who sold our family in the first place, must have taken it. If I can't get it back, I will surely die. You've come this far for me so I guess now's the time to insult you by asking if you're just going to leave me here to die?"

"I am certainly considering it," Fayne replied. "But no, I suppose not. What candle? The First is still around?"

"Well, yeah," Faitir said as if it were obvious. "You really think he'd doom our entire family down the line, even if he was so careless not to get details, without getting some really nice compensation?"

"Are you going to be able to face him or will this be another Scrivener situation?" Fayne asked him.

Faitir coughed awkwardly. "I…make no promises."

She followed after him until they found a room where a man was just standing around casually not being attacked by faer gorta. That meant that there was a good chance this was the First.

He laughed at her. "You must be a fool to follow Faitir around under the false premises of some family curse."

Fayne glared at him. "To begin with, I already know that there is a curse because I actually did glance at some of the scraps of paper I compulsively picked up and put in my pack. Until the last Scaith is dead, all of the dead Scaith will become faer gorta. With that part true, the idea that they were hunting down the last Scaith so that they could find eternal rest isn't that farfetched so even if it's not true there's no point in being an ass about it. And I already didn't believe him because he was really obvious and admitted he wanted to get his own personal army. And even if I was just being irredeemably stupid, why the hell would you laugh at me? Do you really want to alienate me before even making your pitch about how I should side with you and not Faitir?"

The First looked stunned. "How did you know I was going to do that?"

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Because contrary to what you seem to think, I'm not actually that much of a moron."

"Well the full story is that Faitir was never being hunted. He seeks to control us. If I can just kill him then we'll all be free right now. If he wins we'll only be freed upon his death assuming he doesn't go and have a lot of descendents. Or even one descendent. And while I'm sure he wouldn't want any kids knowing what will happen to him if he ever does have one, the murder of a pregnant woman or baby may result to protect himself after his death," the First explained. "So…help me kill him? I can't do it alone."

Fayne glanced behind her at Faitir who was standing literally five feet away. "You don't have anything to chime in here?"

Faitir shrugged. "Not really, no. So what's it going to be? Giving me a totally awesome army that I will totally use to serve you and who will be free in a few decades upon my death or going with this guy who put the family in this situation in the first place?"

"They are all in unbearable agony!" the First pleaded.

"I…can't believe I'm going to say this," Fayne said after a moment's consideration. "But I did come all this way with Faitir and he hasn't insulted me and it's not like it won't happen eventually, especially with a war going on, so I'm taking Faitir's side in this."

"What?" the First couldn't believe it. "You're a monster!"

"Hey, you sold the souls of your entire family for power," Fayne countered. "And I am so barely invested in this that if I hadn't already spent like half an hour on this I'd just leave and let you two duke it out."

Faitir actually deigned to help this time and soon the First was dead at their feet.

"I think we've all learned an important lesson about the importance of good manners," Faitir said cheerfully. "Thanks again for this. I promise that you will never ever have to face a hostile faer gorta ever again. Now I see I shouldn't have lied to you."

"No, that was actually probably for the best," Fayne corrected him.

Faitir cocked his head. "How so?"

"If you had come up to me asking for help to get your own private army of undead family members I would have been out of there before you could even finish the request," Fayne explained.

Faitir nodded. "Duly noted. Onwards to the ritual!"

\----

It was getting dark when she found the woman who had sent her to the windstones again. "Stranger, did you go and do the task I set for you?"

"I did," Fayne confirmed, nodding.

"I have no reason not to believe you and since there have been no clear change in our fortunes I can only conclude that the blessing did not work and we are all doomed," the woman said calmly. "Thank you for showing me this."

"That's not exactly something I'd thank someone for showing me," Fayne remarked.

"Here, take this gold," the woman offered, handing it to her and then looking away in a clear sign of dismissal.

"I really hope the fact that I accepted the blessing for myself instead of directing it towards the town didn't mean that I robbed Ayten of their blessing and took it for myself instead," Fayne said worriedly. "Especially since it only increased my regenerative abilities for a pretty short time and so was totally useless. But I guess if it didn't do much or for very long for me then it wouldn't have done Ayten much good, either."

That done, Fayne decided she really should do something about that water problem because that could potentially be catastrophic. She found the cave easily enough and then found a mysterious artifact. She was somehow able to tell that it had been used recently and that it was broken despite not knowing anything about the artifact in question.

Fortunately there was a dead body just a few feet away and she searched it to find a journal. The journal revealed this corpse to be the mysterious man Jenniker who apparently wasn't evil or responsible after all. The device was made by Niskaru and he knew how to fix it. He hadn't fixed it but he wrote down how to so Fayne could follow along and do it.

She found all the components that were for some reason hidden around the cave, killed everything in her path, and returned to put it all back together again. She had the option to deactivate the machine or switch it to sanguine, melancholic, or phlegmatic. She didn't actually know what any of those options did but the last one sounded like it would make people sick and also really unhygienic and melancholy didn't sound good, either. Sanguine sounded much more positive but she really didn't want to just mess with this stuff when it was already driving people mad so she just turned it off.

She headed back to Alrette so she could see if it worked and the other woman was no longer mad.

"It worked! I'm no longer mad!" Alrette greeted her the moment she got within hearing distance.

Fayne smiled. "Well that's good to hear. And your husband?"

"He's sane, too. I don't know what happened and I don't really want to. I'm just glad we know where to send someone should this happen again," Alrette said. "Assuming we're sane enough to remember. We can't afford much but we can afford a little so here you go." She tried to hand Fayne some money.

But Fayne hesitated. "Oh, I don't know. You are clearly hard off. You should use that money yourselves."

Alrette gave her a funny look. "We're really not that hard off. We're feeding the army, after all. What makes you think we are?"

"Well, it's just…" Fayne trailed off embarrassed and gestured vaguely towards Alrette's middle. The neckline went all the way past her naval.

Alrette looked down and chuckled. "Oh, that's not poverty. It's just a style. I like it like that."

"Really?"

Alrette nodded. "You may find it strange but it makes me happy."

Fayne thought about it. "Well I suppose I can take your money then. I did save a lot of people, after all."

"That's the spirit," Alrette said wryly.

\----

Fayne was surprised to see a finely-dressed man sitting at a table in what seemed to be a camp out in the middle of nowhere.

The man caught her staring and stood up, smiling warmly. "Welcome to our little camp. It may not look like much but it's all we have. I am Lord Cras. I am going to be mayor of New Culn. What is New Culn? I'm so glad you asked."

"I didn't even ask."

"It is the new village we will build since regular old Culn was burned by the Tuatha. The people who lived there were very rich and the hidden treasures, is sold, will provide us with enough gold to start a new village. Gold is all we need, you see."

"Oh, if that's all."

"There are many treasures but some are more valuable than others so please just bring what's written on this list," Cras said, handing it to her.

"Why not just bring as much as I can as long as I also get what's on the list?" Fayne inquired.

"Because that's not the plan," Cras said, unexpectedly annoyed. He cleared his throat. "So sorry. So you'll do it, yes? These people were very wealthy and would like to get on with their lives someplace new. We can't just move to another village because of reasons, you see, even though our wealth would mean that we wouldn't be treated as annoying refugees or anything."

"I never said I'd help," Fayne protested weakly.

"Excellent! Here is where the treasures are hidden," Cras said, pulling out a map and gesturing to it.

And so somehow or another Fayne found herself planning on searching out the treasure. This Lord Cras was good. And she had been getting better at turning down stupid quests! But this one might actually be important.

As she continued her journey, she spotted a man meditating by a campfire and went over to say hello.

"If I've told you once I've told you a thousand times!" he said angrily, climbing to his feet. "We will go when there is somewhere else for us to go!"

"Um…okay. Sorry to have bothered you," Fayne said, taking a step back.

"Wait, despite what I've said I've never actually seen you before and you look confused so maybe you're not here to try and kick us out again," the man said reasonably. "I am Elrod Edman."

"Elrond?"

"No, Elrod. It's a common mistake," Elrod told her. "My people have had a very hard time of it since the Tuatha burned all of our homes. One of our biggest problems is the fact that I suspect refugees Nag Fender and Froma Tonwald and military recruiter Anred Amfast of being spies selling information to the Tuatha. And I know that the refugees probably don't know much that would be helpful but it's really the principle of the thing."

Fayne was horrified. "A military recruiter? Think of all the damage he could do!"

"Oh, I have," Elrod said grimly. "There's not actually any proof because I don't know if the Tuatha keep records and if they do I can't exactly ask them for them but I suspect it so I'd like you to go kill them all."

"…Just like that? You don't even know for sure it's them," Fayne pointed out.

"I can't take any chances," Elrod said stubbornly. "I don't even care if it turns out they're all innocent. They could be guilty."

"This is going very dark places," Fayne said, troubled. "I'll find out if they're guilty or not before taking any action."

"I'm not looking for any detective work, just wanton death and destruction," Elrod told her. "I'd do it myself but these people need me."

Fayne eyed him suspiciously. "And just what do you expect will happen to me after this is done that you couldn't both kill these people then go back and lead your people?"

"Nothing, nothing," Elrod assured her. "Really. This is perfectly safe and reasonable."

"Know that I am judging you severely."


	16. Chapter 16

"So is General Tilera still in the cradle of summer?" Alyn Shir asked the moment Fayne walked into the Emaire inn.

"Yes," the bored-sounding Fateweaver replied. "As she's been ever since she was exiled. As she will remain forever or so says Fate. Stop asking. She is never going to find what she is looking for and she is never going to leave without her prize."

"I just wanted to make sure that hadn't changed," Alyn said.

"Why would it change? How could it possibly change?" the Fateweaver demanded. "It is Fate. Fate is immutable."

"Agree to disagree," Alyn said, turning away. "Ah, Fayne! What a surprise having you turn up just now."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "I'll just bet. So you said something about…actually, I really wasn't listening. But I take it we're going to go find this Genera Tilera?"

Alyn nodded. "We are indeed. Or at least you are."

"Why is an important general hiding out here and not on the front lines anyway?" Fayne asked. "Does she have PTSD or something?"

"No," Alyn said before pausing to consider. "Well…probably. But she was just so very good at her job and made everyone think that maybe, regardless of what Fate said, we wouldn't all eventually be killed by Fateweavers that when one day the Tuatha summoned a fierce creature that is still around today and nobody can beat they decided the only rational course of action was to throw out their best general."

"Rational?" Fayne repeated. "Because, not going to lie, that sounds really damn stupid."

"That's probably because it is," Alyn said. "But people were upset and not thinking clearly and not everyone's just too proud to apologize and have built up in their heads that Tilera was the most incompetent person ever and it's all her fault they're even in this mess. Not to mention that Tilera herself took this pretty hard and probably wouldn't even return without…whatever it is that she's looking for."

"Despite everyone's general stupidity about this, I do see the merit in getting our best general back to generalling."

"I don't even think that's a word," Alyn told her.

Fayne shrugged. "I like it anyway."

"Well have fun," Alyn said. "I've got stuff to do. I might show up later, though."

"Why can't you ever come with me?" Fayne demanded.

"Well, unlike you my presence isn't literally required since I'm not immune to Fate," Alyn said. "And perhaps I would have more time to kill if it hadn't been for the fact that you kept me waiting for ages."

"Oh, I barely kept you waiting at all that time!" Fayne protested.

"Very good. Now when you get it down to 'didn't keep me waiting at all' we'll talk," Alyn said, nodding to Fayne before leaving the establishment.

Fayne heard the word 'Amfast' and it occurred to her that that was the name of one of the possible traitors she promised to kill. Well, promised to talk to, at least.

"Hello, are you by any chance a recruiter for the alfar army?" Fayne asked brightly.

One of the men by the fireplace nodded. "That I am."

"Are you also taking bribes from the Tuatha to sell people out?"

Amfast coughed. "What? Me? No, never."

Fayne just raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh, fine, I totally did. But you don't understand! They took everything from me!"

"And…so the solution is to help them take everything from other people?" Fayne asked.

"I needed the money," Amfast offered weakly.

"Thirty pieces of silver, was it?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

"If you let me go I promise that I will never, ever do it again," Amfast said solemnly.

Fayne stared hard at him before shrugging. "For some reason, I think I believe you. Carry on and stop being a terrible person."

She was about to exit the premises when someone in the corner called out to her.

"How would you like to hear about a godstorm?"

Fayne turned to see an older man looking right at her.

"A godstorm?" Fayne repeated. "I've never heard of that."

"Well thanks to me, Odwald Bynothas, yo u now have," Odwald said proudly. "It was a very old conflict fought between fae."

"Much like this one?" Fayne asked innocently.

Odwald glared at her. "Not at all. I've made it my life's work to write a book on it. Unfortunately, there are a few key sources that I still need to get my hands on…"

Fayne knew where this was going. "And you absolutely need my help in order to get them?"

Odwald beamed. "Would you?"

"I'm seriously not promising anything. I just want to know where I could hypothetically find these documents," Fayne said.

"I'm not quite sure," Odwald admitted. "They've been lost to the ages so-"

"Pass," Fayne said, turning around and leaving. She ignored Odwald's calling after her.

"You resemble someone from authority," a man said, following her out.

"Well I'm not."

"I don't believe you. I think my taxes pay your salary and, despite the fact that so do pretty much everyone else's, I feel I'm entitled to special treatment because of that," the man said. "My name is Wane Emundas and two thieves stole a precious gem from me. Get it back."

"Is that literally all you have for me to go on?" Fayne couldn't believe it.

Wane shrugged. "They went towards the woods."

"Even if I wanted to, tracking them would be impossible," Fayne said flatly. "I do have a nasty habit of running across the people people want me to find, though, so if this happens I might possibly consider returning the jewel to you instead of just selling it. I don't know."

"I think the reason is Fate," Wane suggested.

"And I kind of doubt it," Fayne replied.

After that, she wandered around heading in Tilera's general direction and asking the people she met if they were Tonwald or Fender.

Eventually, one of them said yes.

"What's it to you that I'm Troma Tonwald?" the woman demanded, squinting suspiciously at her.

"Nothing, really, I just want to know if you're spying on people for the Tuatha," Fayne replied.

"How dare you?" the woman asked angrily. "They are awful. They destroyed my family and I can't even sleep through the night without nightmares! They took everything from me!"

"That's not really a no," Fayne pointed out.

Troma slumped. "Okay, fine. I am spying for them. But what was I supposed to do? They killed my family and I have nothing in this world? I needed the money!"

"Is that even a serious question?"

"Yes, it's a serious question!" Troma shouted indignantly.

"You could have not given vital information to your enemy that will allow them to do to other people what you hate them for doing to you," Fayne suggested, smiling tightly. "What might one day kill you as well. You could stop being so obscenely selfish."

"I…" Troma sighed and looked away. "I'll never do it again. Please don't kill me."

"For some reason, I also believe you," Fayne said.

A little ways down the road, she also met Nag Fender. He was quite jumpy. "Who's being strange? I'm not being strange. You're being strange. You're the outsider here, anyway."

"The outsider?" Fayne repeated. "I'm just walking by. Frankly I don't think I'm enough of an insider to even be an outsider."

"Well, er, quite. Go away. I hate the Tuatha. They burned my grainery and killed my cousins," Nag informed her.

"That sucks," Fayne said bluntly. "Are you working for them?"

"Working for them? I'm not working for them!" Nag insisted. His posture changed and he looked like he was about to flee for his life. "Help, she's trying to kill me!"

"I'm really not," Fayne said. "I'm just trying to ask you a question."

Nag just stared at her and trembled and refused to answer.

"Just promise you won't keep spying for the Tuatha no matter how much you might need the money," Fayne tried. "Look, I don't even know for sure that you are. Just because the other two admitted it doesn't mean that what's-his-face was right about everyone."

Nag didn't respond to that so, sighing, Fayne just went on her way, hoping that the accusation would scare him into complying. Why anyone would go hostile when they weren't armed and not going to attack was beyond her. She really ought to have killed him.

"What's with Nag?" a nearby red-headed man asked.

"I think he's just kind of an idiot," Fayne opined.

The man frowned thoughtfully. "I can see it. Hey, you've been wandering about, haven't you? Have you noticed a lovely red-headed young woman roaming about?"

"No, I haven't."

"Well can you go looking for her?" the man asked. "My name is Ommer Vogard. I'd go myself but if she came looking for me I don't want to not be here and have her miss me. Lyra is my new love, you see. I'm old enough to literally have dead grandchildren and they and the rest of my family are all dead because the Tuatha killed them. I used to be rich, too, but that's a little less important. Three years ago I finally found happiness again with Lyra and she's so talented but also so reckless! She and some friends went out looking for some better shelter than just these plains and I haven't seen her in three days."

"I am most certainly wandering around," Fayne confirmed. "In fact, I'll probably come across her and if that happens I'll send her your way."

Ommer nodded his head respectfully. "I'm much obliged."

A little whiles away, another woman pulled her aside.

"Hello, you don't know me but my name is Idwa Widfrond. I'm sick of being poor," Idwa announced.

"That does seem like a pretty reasonable position," Fayne said. "Did you just want to bring that fact to my attention or…?"

"Oh, no," Idwa said, shaking her head. "I'm looking for the grave of a Varani merchant named Azo Raemund. He was super rich but no one liked him all that much and I heard he was buried pretty early on so all his stuff should still be on his corpse. Unfortunately, we somehow lost his grave so I'm desecrating all the graves I find until I find his. Care to help?"

"You're desecrating graves?" Fayne asked, horrified. "Even just one would be bad enough but this is really something else!"

Idwa's gaze was fierce. "Do not judge me, stranger! Have you ever been starving?"

"Well, no," Fayne conceded. "Or at least not in living memory. Maybe when I was younger I starved all the time, I don't know. I'm still going to judge you a little, just the same, for the grave-robbing but perhaps less than I would if you weren't so desperate."

"I'm going to trust you with this," Idwa said dramatically. "Please do not betray me and find the grave and keep all the money for yourself."

"I promise," Fayne said. "Believe me when I tell you I'm certainly not digging any graves up!"

"Your boring scruples will certainly stop you from stealing my gold," Idwa said thoughtfully. "Even if it means you're going to be totally useless and not help me. Well this was a waste of time."

That it was but Fayne felt that her time was just a bit more wasted as she had been the solicited party. She found some ruins and decided to explore them. It was inevitably going to be infested with enemies but at the very least she'd find some nice things to sell.

She also found a few frightened people huddling in the back of one of the rooms.

"Hello," a red-headed woman said. "My name is Lyra. Who are you? Grave robber? Treasure hunter?"

Fayne blinked and looked around. "Are there graves here?"

Lyra laughed. "With all those blades? You can bet on it."

"Well technically I was here to get stuff. And I do take things from dead bodies. But I don't rob graves! That's offensive."

"It's not much of a distinction," Lyra said, unimpressed.

"Yes, it is," Fayne insisted. "Do you know an Ommer?"

"Ah, yes, he's my love. He'd move mountains to get me back," Lyra said. "Did he send you?"

"He did. He would move mountains but not come himself, I guess," Fayne replied. "I got rid of the traps and everything."

Lyra blinked at her. "Huh. And I thought my random blind faith that I wasn't going to die was ludicrous. Maybe it was just prophetic. Well, I guess we're leaving them. Make sure to stop by and see Ommer and get a reward."

Fayne laughed. "Like I was even going to forget to do that."

Lyra and the others ran off suddenly then and Fayne had to chase after them. They seemed to be ignoring the bandits they faced on their way back so Fayne had to hurriedly step in and deal with them so that the refugees wouldn't get themselves killed since apparently they lacked not only a desire or means to fight them off but also some basic self-preservation instincts to stay out of the way. Ommer paid her, went on about how she was a hunter or whatever, and she went on her way.

Since she was in the area, she decided she might as well go recover the treasures of Culn. She might have also taken a few things that weren't on the list but she definitely got those few. And then literally right outside the cave she found a grave and, without desecrating the grave in any way, she spotted a letter on top of it that she then picked up and opened. It was addressed to someone named Britt Hagni and, though Azo, wasn't mentioned she didn't know why this letter would be at a grave if Britt wasn't Azo. Actually, scratch that, she didn't know why the letter was at the grave at all. But it certainly couldn't hurt to find the guy and accuse him of being the supposedly dead rich guy. And that gave her some way to proceed anyway since she certainly wasn't desecrating this grave to get any money and she wouldn't feel good telling Idwa about it for the express purpose of a grave being robbed.

She decided she could go hunt down this Britt Hagni after she delivered the items.

Lord Cras was pleased to see her. "Oh, wow, these are amazing! I have absolutely seen all of them before but it's been so long that I've, er, forgotten how beautiful they are. And stuff. I'm definitely going to use these to help these people."

"I know that a reward was understood," Fayne began tactfully, "but under the circumstances-"

"Oh, nonsense," Lord Cras interrupted. "You shall have it. You deserve a reward equal to what you've given me."

"If you could afford that you wouldn't have needed those," Fayne pointed out.

"Ah, well. At any rate I've acquired a bunch of tools and weapons that I was supposed to use to rebuild New Culn-"

"Technically if it's New Culn then you're not rebuilding it, are you?"

Lord Cras' eye twitched. "Would you mind not interrupting? As I was saying, I want to give them to you."

"And I cannot even take items you'll need to build a town when I'll only end up pawning them off anyway," Fayne said. "Seriously, it's fine."

"No, I insist," Lord Cras said, strangely adamant on this point. "Urlik will go with you so you don't take everything. I mean, not that I don't trust you. But he has a spear!" There was something menacing about his tone.

"Okay," Fayne agreed slowly but she kept her guard up.

Ulrik led her on a very long journey and eventually he just stopped.

Fayne looked around. They were in the middle of nowhere which did not bode well for her.

"Okay, it's time to kill you," Ulrik announced.

"On the one hand, I did kind of see that coming," Fayne admitted. "On the other, I still don't get why you want to kill me. What did I ever do to you guys? I gave Lord Cras a bunch of things he can sell!"

"Yes but you wanted a reward," Ulrik said.

"I totally offered to forgo a reward. I really don't deserve to die," Fayne complained.

"It's not like this is my decision," Ulrik said defensively.

"It's not like anybody is holding a dagger to your throat," Fayne countered. "Lord Cras isn't even here."

"Well…that's true," Ulrik admitted. "And I don't really feel good about the way that 'Lord Cras' just ripped all those poor refugees are and set off for Rathir. Tell you what, you promise you'll go terrorize him off in Rathir and I'll let you go."

"That is completely and utterly out of my way and finding him seems like it will be really hard," Fayne said thoughtfully. "And I know that I can take you if you do try to kill me. That's not even a consideration. But I'm really annoyed about this guy being such a terrible person. The least he could do is ask me not to accept a reward or let me decline it and not push one on me or maybe even give me a real reward while still ripping those poor refugees off! I've got to go."

"Off to Rathir, I hope," Ulrik said.

Fayne smiled tightly. "Oh yes."

\----

It was a long journey back to Rathir and there were plenty of things that she probably should have looked into along the way but it didn't matter. This was important.

She got lucky that one of the first places she thought to look was the docks and there he was, just standing around casually.

"Lord Cras," she called brightly.

Cras' eyes widened and he tensed. "Ah. How good to see you."

"I can't believe you tried to have me killed so I wouldn't need a reward when I already told you I didn't want one," Fayne said, annoyed. "I mean, you could have stiffed me in a non-lethal way! You could have thanked me but said that, unfortunately, everything you had was needed for New Culn! I probably even would have believed you!"

"Yes, well, I didn't want to do that," Cras said awkwardly.

"Didn't even occur to you, did it?" Fayne asked knowingly.

Cras scowled. "I never should have trusted a liar to commit murder. That's what murderers are for."

"Trusted?" Fayne repeated. "What makes you think I didn't kill Ulrik? Why jump straight to betrayal? If that's really what you think of him then I'm thinking, yeah, probably should have gotten someone else to do it. I run into all sorts of cheap low-life thugs everywhere I go and they don't need to be 'trusted' to kill someone, believe me."

"Did you kill Ulrik?" Cras asked her.

"…No," Fayne admitted. "But I could have!"

"Then how would you have known where to find me?" Cras asked rhetorically.

"I could have tortured it out of him," Fayne suggested. "Or something."

Cras laughed. "Yeah, you're not the torturing type, I can tell."

Fayne narrowed her eyes. "Look, whatever, I'm taking you to jail. Or trying to, at any rate. If you resist I'll feel perfectly fine about killing you."

"I did what I had to do!" Cras insisted.

"Really?" Fayne asked skeptically. "You just had to go all the way out to Emaire and rip off a bunch of refugees and pretend you're going to rebuild a city and then attempting to murder me? You had to do it?"

Cras jutted his jaw out stubbornly. "Yes. Now how about I give you all the money I made selling what you gave me and we just call it even?"

"What happened to 'I had to do it'?" Fayne demanded. "You needed the money but can just give it to me?"

"I also got some money from the refugees," Cras explained.

"I am sending you straight to jail and I am going to enjoy it," Fayne said flatly.

Cras didn't resist but he did glare at her. "I will have my revenge!"

"From prison?" Fayne asked skeptically. "No, see, this is _my_ revenge."

\----

That settled, Fayne headed back to Emaire. It was the middle of the night but she wasn't about to let that stop her from finding the mysterious Britt Hagni.

He was sleeping when she barged into his house but promptly sat up, fully awake, and asked, "May I help you?"

Man this guy was polite. She would have been nowhere near that graceful if she were in his shoes.

"Hey, have you heard of some guy named Azo Raemund?" Fayne asked.

"No, I've never heard of him," Britt claimed, his eyes shifty. "In fact, he's dead. And, more importantly, all of his money died, too."

"I wasn't aware that money could die," Fayne said, surprised. "Unless, I guess, you melted it or something. But how do you know he's dead if you've never heard of him?"

"I know nothing about him except he is dead and so is his money," Britt amended. "And that's not all that much, really. How do you know about him?"

"I found a grave that had a letter to you on it," Fayne said. "And some woman told me about him. I was wondering about the connection. I mean, there's really not much of a connection between a letter on a grave and Azo Raemund but-"

"Okay, fine, it's me. I spent all my money after the Tuatha attacked but people don't understand that and keep hassling me for it," Britt admitted suddenly. "I didn't want the bother so I changed my name. All I have left are three family rings for my children. I'll give you one of them if you go away and don't tell anybody about me."

"You can keep the ring if you promise you won't try to kill me," Fayne said.

Britt gave her a strange look. "Why would I try to kill you?"

"I don't know but someone just did because he didn't want to give me a reward I tried to turn down so I'm not taking any chances," Fayne said.

"I can live with that. Thank you, stranger," Britt said gratefully. He glanced at his clock. "Now if you don't mind, it's two in the morning so could you maybe go?"

Fayne nodded and went back to Idwa.

"I'm just about to give up," Idwa said dramatically. "Did you find any sign of the grave?"

"No. And it's probably already looted. You should give up," Fayne said. "Oh, but take some gold so I don't feel bad."

Idwa blinked in surprise. "Well this worked out better than I'd hoped. Thanks!"

Elrod was right across from her so she went to bother him as well.

"Hey, I, um, spoke to all of the people you thought might be traitors," Fayne told him.

"And they're all dead, huh? I knew it," Elrod said confidently, if wrongly. "I'm so glad to meet such a helpful soul! Here, take this gold."

"Yeah. I…yeah," Fayne said awkwardly, deciding not to mention she hadn't killed any of them and one of them wouldn't even promise he wouldn't do it again. Assuming he'd actually been guilty in the first place. The other two had confessed, though, so it seemed likely.

She decided to head over to the Cradle of Summer and maybe look into finding Tilera. On the way, she found a group of fae sitting around a tree and went over to greet them.

One of them stood up and stared disdainfully at her when she approached which was really not a great sign.

"Are you one of the children of dust?" he demanded.

"Am I a mortal?" Fayne rephrased. "Can't you tell? I am, by the way. Also King of the House of Ballads so I'm cool anyway."

"I was being polite," the fae said stiffly. "Similarly, I will tell you that I am Lord Callor before biting your head off, so to speak."

"I'm going to trust that you're a real lord," Fayne said. "But I will be watching you."

"Mortals are awful. They invade our space and try to wake us up when we'd clearly like to just sleep forever. And they stole our three sacred staffs and broke them for some reason and all died horribly and I need them back but have no intention of going after them," Callor ranted.

"I'll get them for you," Fayne offered.

"And reforge them?"

Fayne winced. "Hey, I didn't sign up to…oh, fine. Whatever. I'll be back when I have your staffs."

She was going to go look for them when someone ragged came running up to her.

"Yes, yes, I'm the guilty party," he babbled. "I stabbed my partner in the back and took the amulet. Do whatever you want with me, just please take it!"

"Why are you trying to give me an amulet?" Fayne wondered. Did he have something to do with that guy who wanted her to find an amulet or something because he thought she was a guard? Not that it mattered as she refused to humor him.

"It's cursed. I came here trying to get it uncursed but I'm not very good at this and will probably die. Please just get it uncursed and then do what you like!" the man pled.

Fayne sighed. "Fine. But if people keep giving me new things to do then I'm never going to finish any of the old ones."

"I'm not a complete idiot so I tried to ditch the amulet but even after I left I could still feel the effects as it was apparently still considered to be mine," the man complained. "I'm just not strong enough. I'm sure you'll be strong enough, though. Based on absolutely nothing but blind hope."

Fayne held her hand out for the amulet and accepted his profuse thanks and directions to where she could go to get the amulet uncursed. She felt strange the moment she touched it and figured it was either the curse or she was imagining things because she had been told that it was cursed.

She went into the cave he pointed her to and fought her way through it. Eventually she had to kill a bog thresh. While she was fighting, she kept somehow catching on fire, being struck by lightning, and getting ice burns. It was kind of weird but probably the curse. She put the amulet on an altar she found at the back of the cave, it glowed for a moment, and then she felt better. Curse probably removed. Now she could go sell it or something. She'd have to make sure to do it in Emaire and not to the idiot who owned it and hope one day he discovered his precious amulet in a pawn shop.

Fayne found one staff in Mull-Rane, another in the Foresaken Plane, and had to get the third one from Britt Hagni's home. He had freaked out upon seeing her and thought she was there for his family rings after all. She informed him that she would probably be hanging around the town in the future and he really needed to calm down about it.

She knew literally nothing about forging so she paid someone else to do it for her and returned to Lord Callor.

"Thanks for bringing the staffs back," Callor said when she approached him. He seemed much friendlier but, after she actually did what she said she would, it made sense that he would be.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Let me guess. You knew I had them because why else would I be pestering you?"

"The Deep Slumber actually told me that you had them. It also told me all sorts of things about you, some of them things I'm sure you'd appreciate knowing but that I don't feel like sharing," Callor said. "It also said that you were meant to find the staffs and keep them."

Fayne looked suspiciously at him. "And what exactly is this 'Deep Slumber' you speak of?"

Callor looked away and didn't answer.

"I don't think I was 'meant' to do anything. I'm not really the meant for type," Fayne continued. "And you were all pissy because your sacred staffs were stolen but now when I go and get them for you you want me to keep them and it's fine? I don't even want them!"

"The Deep Slumber says it shall be so."

She loved the fae, she really did, but sometimes they were impossible.

A little further down her path, she ran into some Alfar camping out outside of a giant gate.

"Hello, I am General Tilera," Tilera introduced. "This might sound like a random question but we don't really get guests out here so are you the aid that Alyn Shir promised? Please tell me that you aren't the aid that she promised."

Fayne frowned, offended. "And why shouldn't I be that aid?"

"Well she sounded like she was promising me an army," Tilera replied. "And, no offense, but you are no army."

"Where would she even get an army?"

Tilera shrugged. "I do not know but she is very resourceful."

"I do not mean to brag but I'm kind of better than an army," Fayne told her.

"And that is kind of bragging, whatever your intention," Tilera said. "Perhaps it's better I don't have an army. I'm fated to fail, army or no army."

"And I'm fated to not have a fate which is why I'm better than that army," Fayne said.

Tilera laughed. "That'll be the day."

"There's a reason she sent me," Fayne said pointedly. "Come on, if you're not supposed to succeed then you can at least give me a shot. I can't make you fail any more than you already are. Why are you even out here if you know it's never going to work?"

"I can't very well go home and forget about the war, can I?" Tilera asked rhetorically. "It is a grim fate, truly, but I have heard worse. I need to be able to get through this passage and get the MacGuffin that will allow me to destroy any horror on the battlefield. Unfortunately, the entire place is infested with Niskaru."

"I became a Truesworn of the Warsworn by becoming an expert at killing Niskaru and saving the world," Fayne said modestly.

"Which would be great except the door is fated to never be opened," Tilera continued.

"As was the case with the door leading to a forge to fix a hammer I needed to stop the Niskaru and save the world," Fayne replied. "Do you have any leads?"

"I did hear something about voices rising or something that made me think of activating the windstones and I do have a chime for that very purpose," Tilera admitted. "But I've tried activating them and it never works."

"Probably because it's not supposed to work," Fayne said practically. "But just tell me where the windstones are and give me an hour or so and we'll see what's what."

Tilera told her where the windstones were and so Fayne set off.

Along the way, she encountered a farm.

"Welcome to the Nareen farm," the blue Alfar woman said cheerfully. "I am Serabel Nareen and this farm is probably going to die a very tragic death pretty soon."

"I'm…sorry," Fayne said uncertainly.

"Oh, it's not your fault," Serabel told her. "It just doesn't seem to want to grow and I just can't think of wh-the Paling Wand. It's the Paling Wand."

"You just now realized what your problem is?" Fayne asked skeptically. "And let me guess, you want me to solve it for you?"

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble," Serabel replied.

"It probably would."

"It's just that Arick's grandfather used to say that the Paling Wand needed to be taken to the hollows and recharged every now and again in order to tame the wilderness and make a farm happen in this completely unsuitable for growing things location," Serabel explained. "We'd go ourselves but we're old."

Fayne stared at her in disbelief. "You are not even old and neither is…Arick, is it?"

"I'm actually super old," Arick claimed.

"I bet you're not even that much older than I am," Fayne said.

Arick tilted his head up. "Every little year counts."

"So basically you can help us save the farm or we'll be ruined and you'll let a bunch of religious fanatics win," Serabel said seriously.

"Well I know really nothing about your situation or why these people don't like you and you might be mislabeling them but I am really not comfortable letting anyone called a fanatic win so…sure, I'll help you out," Fayne agreed. "Just give me the wand."

"Great," Serabel said brightly. She quickly outlined where Fayne needed to go and what she needed to do. It would be annoying but shouldn't take that long. And what was a little inconvenience compared to a couple's livelihood?

She fought a few mercenaries and was then confronted by another alfar, this one appearing quite hostile.

"I saw you speaking with those vagrants on Beggar's Bluff," she accused. "What lies have they told you?"

"I don't answer anyone's questions that I don't know the name of," Fayne said coldly.

"Graem Haille," Graem said curtly. "Same question."

It was pretty nosy but Fayne didn't see a reason not to answer. "They asked me to get the Paling Wand and return it to their land so that they can start to farm it again."

The way Graem's eyes widened in horror was a bit of an overreaction. "But you must not!"

"And why must I not?"

"It is an abomination! Fae magic! That just proves their unworthiness!" she exclaimed.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you're not going to get anywhere with me by decrying fae magic."

"You must give it to me so that I may give it to Priestess Aurela and destroy it so the Nareen's will be forced to leave and can go die alone somewhere for all any of us care," Graem said seriously.

"Well…at least you're honest about it," Fayne said, appalled. "Why exactly are you such a terrible person?"

"I'm not terrible. I'm just following the will of Lyria," Graem explained.

"If the will of Lyria requires you to be a terrible person then you're still a terrible person," Fayne insisted. "Now please elaborate. Why does ruining those poor hard-working – if a bit cowardly perhaps – people seem like a good idea to you?"

"It's quite simple," Graem told her. "Earlier in the war the Tuatha passed quite close to this village. It destroyed all of the neighboring villagers and they ransacked that farm. We were all so sure we would be next and we prayed nonstop to Lyria. Lyria listened and spared us. Clearly we were judged worthy and everyone else is worthless heathens. Well, everyone whom the Tuatha attacked. If you've never been driven from your home by Tuatha then you're worthy, too." She looked questioningly at Fayne.

"To the best of my knowledge, I've never been driven from my home by a Tuatha," Fayne said honestly. The Well of Souls wasn't a home exactly.

Graem looked curious at the phrasing but let it go. "So you can see how we don't want worthless people rejected by Lyria to have anything to do with us. They might get their unworthy cooties on us."

"So let me get this straight," Fayne said slowly. "You were fortunate enough that the Tuatha, for some reason, decided not to cut a path of destruction through your town. I don't know why they didn't when they were destroying everything else as a town seems like a better place to destroy than a farm or some wilderness but I suppose, statistically speaking, they couldn't destroy literally everything. You respond by immediately judging everyone who was unfortunate enough to be victimized and lose everything?"

Graem nodded. "That about sums it up."

"How in the…" Fayne couldn't even finish, shaking her head in disgust. "Do you people think that the Tuatha are agents of Lyria or something? Do you think that if they were good Lyrians the Tuatha just wouldn't exist at all?"

"Of course not!" Graem objected, sputtering. "It's just…just…Oh, Priestess Aurela explains it better."

"She's a bigoted bitch," Fayne snapped. "I haven't even met her but if she really says that people who have had their lives stolen from them deserved it and should be chased off for no better reason than because their lives were destroyed…I mean for fuck's sake! I've seen refugees mistreated before. Usually it's because there are too many of them and it creates a drain on the town or the town is acting prematurely and hoping to stave off just that. I've never seen anyone do it out of spite before."

"It's not spite!" Graem protested. "I wish that Lyria had loved everybody and we were all worthy but it wasn't to be and who am I to question Lyria?"

"You wouldn't be questioning Lyria. It would be your villainous priestess," Fayne corrected. "She's the one who is twisting what I'm sure are lovely teachings around to get you to hate and hurt people. I'm not giving you that wand. I'm not giving her that wand. I'm going to help these people and let's both hope that your little philosophy doesn't get in my way because if it does…"

She left it at that and went out to retrieve the Paling Wand. When she returned it to Serabel, she was grateful but only had some herbs to offer her. Graem had pissed her off so thoroughly that Fayne didn't even care about the shoddy reward.

After that, she hesitantly entered the village, hoping that she wouldn't be tempted to kill everyone in it, and was quickly set upon by a desperate-looking man.

"Help me, please," the man begged. "My name is Atheof Cergren and my daughter is missing."

"Missing in what way?" Fayne asked. "And why won't anybody else help you? You're standing in the village unmolested so they probably think Lyria likes you or something."

"Oh, they do," Atheof confirmed. "Something about us being survivors so the only worthy souls in Culn or something. But my Anela decided to go see if she could resettle Culn-"

"She wouldn't be the first," Fayne muttered.

"And I should have heard from her by now. Everyone here thinks it's a wasted endeavor since Culn clearly isn't favored by Lyria so they're just ignoring the problem. Can you go look for her? One way or another I'd like to know and if she's in danger I want to send help," Atheof said earnestly. "I'm not a wealthy man by any means but I can give you some health potions."

Fayne considered. "Well, it's better than mana potions. I'll see what I can do."

A dolled-up Alfar came up to her then.

"Greetings traveler," she said airily. "I am the mayor of this village, its priestess, and its guiding light."

This must be Aurela then.

"All three of those?" Fayne asked rhetorically. "That certainly sounds like overkill and a definite failure in the separation of powers. Why, if you were to abuse your power then who could possibly stop you?"

"Lyria would," Aurela replied serenely. "But I would never so the question is moot. We are very hospitable to all those who believe in Lyria and haven't suffered any sort of misfortune that indicates that they are unworthy. Everyone who doesn't believe in Lyria can just fuck off. So are you a follower of Lyria?"

Fayne was not, in fact, a follower of any sort of god and didn't know nor particularly care about any past affiliations. "Yes. Absolutely."

Aurela beamed at her. "Excellent! In that case I'm willing to sell you healing and you may feel free to do what you will in this village and stay as long as you like. Bless you, child."

"Uh-huh."

Fayne went into a shop and was greeted by a very nervous shopkeeper. "Imprisoned fae? What imprisoned fae? I don't know anything about any imprisoned fae!"

Fayne raised an eyebrow. "Is there perhaps an imprisoned fae here that I should be aware of?"

The shopkeeper coughed so hard he started choking and turned red. "N-no."

"I don't believe you."

"Okay, fine, you've dragged it out of me," the shopkeeper said dramatically. "They've thrown a fae in the jail for no apparently reason. But Aurela and White Nil said it was fine and he's a fae and they're weird so maybe he likes being imprisoned."

"If fae liked being imprisoned don't you think they'd go imprison themselves more regularly?" Fayne demanded, narrowing her eyes.

"I know literally nothing about fae except that they're weird," the shopkeeper declared. "Oh, and how to recognize one on sight."

"Believe it or not, that actually puts you ahead of some people I've met," Fayne said, sighing.

"Please don't tell anybody that I told you about this," the shopkeeper pleaded. "He's in Burren Cove, by the way."

"Do yourself a favor," Fayne advised. "Don't play poker."

She dutifully headed over to the prison and, despite the warning, was rather shocked when she saw a fae sitting behind bars. He stood up when she approached.

"I am Adar. You are not Nil the White nor the Priestess. Have you come to laugh?" he asked bitterly.

"I have never seen anything less funny in my life," Fayne said honestly. "I have to get you out of here."

"You cannot," Adar said simply.

"There must be a way," Fayne said fiercely. "Who put you here and why?"

"Nil the White and the Priestess did," Adar answered. "They needed my magic."

Fayne's eyes widened. "Are they…are they somehow siphoning it off and using it themselves?"

"The Priestess, at least, is," Adar said. "She has good intentions but that does not mean she is not capable of atrocities. These bars can be opened by a key held by Nil the White. You could also pick the lock, I'm sure, but that's really no matter. The true prison is this circle from which I cannot move and only words that the Priestess knows can release me."

"I genuinely have no idea how I'm going to be able to get her to say those words," Fayne said slowly. "But I'll do it. I wonder if killing her would do the trick? No, best not risk it in case it doesn't work."

Fayne was literally shaking when she left him and quite incapable of focusing on anything else. She followed the tunnel to the sanctuary and, since they were connected, decided that was the best place to look. She didn't actually expect to find anything but she knew just how well 'So how do I free the fae you're stealing the power of?' would go over and so she searched nonetheless.

She actually got luck about forty minutes into the search and literally stumbled upon the words she had to say in a spell book. Perhaps there was something to be said about actually reading the books she came across?

She returned to Adar and picked the lock on his cage before reciting the words the book indicated.

She was pleased when the circle instantly faded and Adar looked at her with new appreciation.

He smiled at her. "Thank you. I truly did not expect such kindness from a mortal after my experiences here. Even when they mean well, they still do so much harm. You have freed me as you promised and so quickly, too! I do not know how you managed it. I will go enact my revenge on my captors and then go meditate on the hill nearby. If you need healing, please let me know. The Priestess no longer has the ability nor, I think, would she heal you even if she could."

That sounded a bit worrying but she figured he did kind of deserve it. "Just make sure to only go after the ones who did this to you and not the whole complicit town," she advised. "I really think that would be going a little far."

"I will be fair," Adar promised though Fayne, for all her experiences with the fae, did not quite know what that meant.

"Well…have at it, then."


	17. Chapter 17

Technically Tilera was still waiting for her but she had been waiting for ten years now and would spend the rest of her life waiting. She also didn't seem to actually think that Fayne could help her. As such, Fayne felt very little guilt when she ended up near Rathir and decided that – since she'd already stopped by twice – she might as well explore the city in a little more detail.

She had barely stepped foot in it when an alfar woman ambushed her.

"Hello, my name is Rhiad Guth. I'm a recruiter with the alfar army," Rhiad introduced herself.

"Not interested, sorry," Fayne said, not sounding particularly sorry at all. "And no point trying to conscript me as I wouldn't go anyway."

"That wasn't what I was going to say though you really should obey such summons," Rhiad replied. "You look very proud and regal. How would you like to go deliver conscription notices to a bunch of people around Rathir? It's for the war effort."

Fayne glared at her. "Do I look like a freaking messenger?"

Rhiad nodded. "I think you do, yes."

Offended, Fayne stormed off.

"Wait, you didn't take the notices you need to deliver!" Rhiad called after her.

She went to the tavern and was nearly jumped by a drunk alfar.

"You have to help me!"

"Do I?" Fayne asked rhetorically. "Do I really?"

"My name is Walen Forstid and yesterday I was a drunken idiot. I don't know what happened since I blacked out by now apparently I'm fighting a duel with one of the most respected war heroes in Rathir," Walen informed her.

"Well that certainly does suck for you," Fayne noted.

"I need you to be my second. And to go down to the lower tunnels and buy a mild poison and then sneak into the well-guarded armory of my opponent and coat his blade with it so I can get hit and look convincingly dead in the duel tomorrow," Walen elaborated. "If I don't die I'll have to go to war and I don't want to so I'll also need you to tell my men what ship to put me on so I can escape Rathir and in the process destroy the reputation of an honorable war hero who I've in some way wronged by making everyone, including him, think that I killed him. What do you say?"

Fayne stared at him for a long moment. "Pass."

Where did he even get off trying to ruin a good man's life because he was a coward?

She did find some tunnels in the inn and decided she might as well explore them.

She ran into a group of people huddled together.

"Forgive our suspicion," the leader said. "It has not been safe for us Sparrows of late."

"What the hell is a sparrow?" Fayne asked. "Assuming you don't mean a literal bird. Because if you do…I hate to break it to you but you're no sparrow."

The woman shook her head. "I am Selni Peliad. We are a group of scavengers and we are randomly being hunted and killed. Could you maybe ask the city watch to look into it? If no one asks personally then they won't get off their asses and do anything and we can't go ourselves as we'd surely be killed before we made it there. The Captain of the Watch is literally the only person we trust and is absolutely above suspicion."

"Knowing how these things tend to resolve themselves, I'd say he's the one having you all killed," Fayne said shrewdly. "So you probably shouldn't trust him."

"Oh, he would never!" Selni protested. "He's a really good man."

Fayne sighed. "I'll go talk to him, I guess. But since if I'm right everyone will be far too depressed for gloating, I'm going to gloat now even though technically I haven't been proven right yet. I told you so."

"And if you aren't proven right?" Selni asked.

Fayne shrugged. "You can 'I told you so' me twice, once to make up for the false one I just made and once because you did in fact tell me so. But you won't because I'm totally right."

She went to the headquarters of the city watch and had an unreasonably difficult time finding the captain even though the building really wasn't all that big. He was hiding in some out-of-the-way stairwell.

"Hello, I am Captain Eriad Talibor. I am definitely not hiding from having to do things. What can I help you with?" Eriad asked pleasantly.

"I know you're killing all the Sparrows," Fayne said. "I…don't actually know why I'm involved in this but since I apparently am I'd like to ask you to please stop."

"Me?" Eriad asked, looking genuinely surprised. "I think you must have me confused with their old enemy Orwin Dunn. He's back in Rathir. I know all about their situation."

"And you haven't done anything about it or even warned them?" Fayne demanded.

He shrugged. "I've been busy."

"I see right through you," Fayne declared. She decided to set out to find Orwin anyway just in case. There was no need to be negligent just because this was probably a waste of time.

On her way to go find him, she bumped into a certain Carasta Arawyn who offered to give her money if she got some merchant named Gwalchmai drunk and got him to sign a contract. He had an unspoken monopoly or something. She was nearly positive that if it were proven that the contract was signed while intoxicated then it wouldn't hold up in court but that was hardly her problem. She was just getting paid for him to sign a contract. Apparently she got him to sign a really favorable one but she did get him really drunk. He didn't trust Carasta as she was far too clever and competent but Fayne apparently looked vaguely incompetent or something and so when she randomly showed up with alcohol he was happy to join her. Well, Carasta had gotten the good stuff.

Outside the customs house, she ran into Gwalchmai's idiot assistant who was supposed to retrieve a red ledger from the customs house. He was given the keys and everything but he lost them somewhere and didn't know what chest it was in. She made him buy her fifty lock picks and eventually, despite her truly abysmal lockpicking skills, managed to take everything in there and get the ledger back. And apparently the assistant was getting a raise goody for him.

She could tell that she found Orwin because she got close and he said, "Sparrows send a hound out to the piers...and of course, now we're right where he wants the both of us, you and I."

Fayne winced. "Okay, a couple of things. First of all, if you said the both of us you don't need to further clarify that you mean me and you. And how did you know that I was approaching you on the behalf of the Sparrows? And you do mean the Captain of the Watch, don't you? I knew he was evil. It's always the one the victim trusts."

"Unless the victims aren't lousy judges of characters," Orwin said. "I knew because I'm magic like that and obviously it's him. He even lured me back here even though I was well aware of what a lousy idea this was! Now we're going to have to fight and whichever of us dies will have the murders of the Sparrows pinned on him. So let's try to kill each other."

"Yeah we could do that," Fayne agreed. "Except that's really stupid so how about you just go to a place with lots of witnesses and I try to save the Sparrows? If I succeed there's no need to pin anything on anyone. If I don't then you'll have plenty of alibi witnesses. And, word to the wise, next time you leave a place for a good reason don't let anybody lure you back so easily!"

Orwin paused. "Huh. That's actually a better plan than mine. Later then, I'll be in the tavern. I'd wish you luck with the Sparrows except I really do kind of want them all dead."

She quickly hurried back to the Sparrows, hoping the three times she took the wrong way wouldn't spell the difference between life and death for them.

Eriad and his men were surrounding the still-living Sparrows when she stumbled upon the scene.

"You," Eriad said accusingly, breathing heavily, "you're the one. Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"Is this the part where you accuse me of the murders you haven't actually even committed yet?" Fayne asked, annoyed.

"Hey, I didn't ask for you to be involved in this!" Eriad said defensively. "All I wanted was to blame Dunn in peace. I guess you've killed him, then. So despite the fact he was meant to be the scapegoat and is nice and dead, I'll have to blame it on you. I had to do it, you see. I can't have them telling everyone what they know!"

"But we don't actually know anything," Selni protested.

Eriad drew back, surprised. "What? You mean you don't know all about the fact I'm actually an evil slaver? But you found my shipwreck!"

"Yeah we had no idea," Selni told him. "And we probably would have kept quiet about it when we did actually find out about it because, slaver or not, you're the only one who didn't persecute us."

"Well…this is awkward," Eriad admitted. "Since I've told you what I didn't want you to know now and I've destroyed any trust by trying to kill you I'm going to have to kill you anyway. But I want you to know that this is really uncomfortable for me."

Fayne rolled her eyes and attacked. "Oh whatever."

Once he and his men were dead, Selni turned to her. "So I don't actually know who you are or why you helped us when the one person we actually trusted turned out to be the murderer but…thanks. That was really good of you to randomly show up and save us all."

"Not a problem," Fayne replied. "It didn't even take up too much time or anything. Chances are, you were all fated to die anyway."

Selni was puzzled. "But if we were fated to die then how-"

Fayne held up a hand. "Yeah, don't worry about it. You'll sleep better."

\----

On the upper levels of Rathir, Fayne was staring admiringly at the grand houses when an alfar woman standing in front of one of them noticed her interest.

"My Lady Coriana won't eat, she won't sleep...All on account of her poor, sick, Mallion. Woe on House Anwon!" she said dramatically.

Fayne paused, uncertain. "Are you looking for some sympathy or do you actually want me to do something here?"

"The healers said that it's bad blood," the woman said, "but my lady insists that it's poison. All he ever does is sleep but he never wakes up!"

"I think the word you're looking for is 'coma'," Fayne said helpfully.

"I don't know if you can help; you'll have to ask Lard Coriana about it," the woman said. "It's right through there."

Fayne stared at her. "You're going to let me in just like that?"

The woman shrugged. "You look trustworthy."

"Is this common policy? Because if it is I think I understand how what's-his-name got poisoned a little bit better," Fayne remarked.

She went in anyway and went up to the woman who looked the fanciest. She had a really weird glowing neck contraption that Fayne could only assume passed for fashion up here.

"Since you're here I'm going to assume you want to help my son," Coriana announced. "I'm too old to do it personally so please go get me a Lapidus flower from the Acathan wetlands. It's blue. It should cure this poison."

Fayne shrugged. "That was nice and straightforward. Alright, I'll see what I can do."

She left Rathir and found her way to Moon Camp which was where she was supposed to report for her next Travelers missions anyway.

Her eye was immediately caught by a very theatrical-looking man with deep red hair having over half of his face. He looked quite upset and surprisingly attractive. She made a bee-line for him.

"Hello," he greeted her, sounding weary. "I am Irion and I am in charge here in Moon Camp. I suppose you're the one that the Hierophant said to expect? I was told about you weeks ago but it doesn't really matter does it? My Maire has left me forever and now all of Moon Camp is in ruins."

Fayne glanced around her. Admittedly she didn't know what Moon Camp looked like before but it didn't seem like it was in ruins.

"Forgive me, you've done so much for the Travelers already. You don't care about some poor broken-hearted alfar," Irion said tragically.

"I can't believe I'm saying this but I actually care a great deal about your problems," Fayne said. "So much so I'm weirding myself out a little. Who is Maire? What happened?"

"Maire is – was – who even knows? She's my lovely wife and the true brains behind this little operation. She feels I do not appreciate her and so I have driven her from the life she loves so much!"

"That's awful!" Fayne exclaimed sympathetically.

"We had such a romantic story, too," Irion continued sadly. "She was from a noble family and I was her jester. People didn't understand so we joined the Travelers and couldn't be happier. But now she's gone. She told me she was going to the Temple of Lyria and I was absolutely not, under any circumstances, to follow her and try to win her back."

"Yeah she might have said that but I think that if she actually told you where she was going there's a decent chance she really does want you to do just that," Fayne said. "Obviously you don't want to harass her if she really does want nothing more to do with her but you should at least give it a shot and see if she's receptive. If not then do leave her alone."

Irion shook his head. "Alas, I cannot. I couldn't bear it if it didn't work and I'm too devastated to try and find the right words. I will stay here and pray to the Hierophant for guidance."

"I can only hope she'll tell you to do what I told you to do," Fayne replied. Since she was there, she went over to the Hierophant statue but it galled her to have to bend knee to that thing and the awful person who controlled it.

"Is that a petitioner I see before me?" the Hierophant asked coyly.

Fayne narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, don't be cute."

"It's just hard to tell if you're there or not," the Hierophant said defensively. "I see you are eager to serve your guide."

"You are so obviously a Fateweaver that it's painful," Fayne muttered. "And I'm not 'eager' or anything of the sort. I legitimately hate you."

"I have seen the items that you must steal," the Hierophant declared dramatically.

"Let's call it what it is," Fayne said tetchily. "Even if you've 'seen' them, you're the one who decided that I must steal them. It's hardly fate that I do so."

The Hierophant ignored that. "You must steal the Chalice of Forced Vintage from the lower city of Rathir and the signet ring of Wyvyrn Gilfre from the Upper City."

"I'll consider it," Fayne said.

She ran into a man who wanted her to bring him peasant clothes. Not any clothes simply peasant ones. He was a tailor or something and apparently could only use peasant clothes to make costumes. If she ever found herself in Moon Camp again and in possession of peasant clothes, which she doubted would ever happen, she made a note to look him up.

She left Moon Camp to search for the flower she was supposed to get to save that noble alfar guy and ended up finding a makeshift settlement being attacked by Tuatha. She fought her way to the basement of one of the buildings and found man cowering and repeating, "They found me" to himself.

"Hello," Fayne greeted him. "I'm not a Tuatha. What's going on here?"

"This is where we were trying to rebuild Culn," the man said. "I thought I was going to die out here alone, the last of Culn's settlers."

"The last?" Fayne asked, alarmed. "Does that mean…that one person I was looking for is dead, too?"

The man shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. Anela – I'm assuming you mean her – and the others were out when the Tuatha attacked and they haven't returned. Oh, I so hope those assholes in Emaire don't find out about this. They'll just start ranting on more about how Lyria protected them and is clearly still judging us."

"They probably would," Fayne agreed. "So don't worry; they won't find out what happened from me. Where were Anela and the others going?"

"They were investigating the Tuatha at Virki. You should probably hurry since if they aren't dead already they likely will be soon," the man informed her. "Me, I'll be hiding in the basement until I'm killed or someone comes back to save me."

"Um, good luck with that then," Fayne said uncomfortably.

She tracked down Anela in Virki and arrived just in time to save her from some Tuatha.

"It's not like I don't appreciate the life-save, stranger," Anela told her. "But I'm not leaving until I stop the Tuatha."

Fayne stared blankly at her. "Like…in general or…?"

Anela let out a startled laugh. "What? Oh, no. I just need to stop them from being able to get into Culn. You can help me if you'd like or, more probably, just leave me to my fate."

"Well I never leave people to Fate if I can help it," Fayne replied. "Plus your dad asked me to make sure you're okay and I've come a long way not to even make sure you get out of here alive."

"That is unexpected but we just might make it with you!" Anela cheered.

Fayne smiled at that, pleased to be properly appreciated for once.

She escorted Anela past the Tuatha, shut the water valve, and then Anela thanked her and ran off.

It occurred to her that she had left Tilera some time ago and really should get back to that, especially since she had actually activated all the wind stones like she was supposed to.

Tilera wasn't pleased to see her. "There you are! We thought you were dead! What happened to 'give me an hour'? It's been two weeks!"

Fayne coughed. "Yes, well, when I told you I'd be back in an hour I did really and sincerely mean that. It's just that since then I've…well…I shouldn't give people timelines. I never meet them. I get distracted all of the time."

Tilera winced. "And this is the aid that Alyn Shir sent."

"Hey, I got your stupid Fate barrier or whatever to open, didn't I?" Fayne asked, annoyed.

"That is true," Tilera allowed. "Now I'll have to ask for you to come with me immediately or I fear I shall never see you again and I can't do this alone."

"What happened to your other allies?" Fayne asked.

"In the two weeks you've been gone they all died," Tilera explained.

"Does that kind of thing happen frequently?" Fayne asked nervously.

Tilera sighed heavily. "Yes."

"So what are we even looking for anyway?" Fayne wondered.

"The Piercing Light," Tilera explained. "It's guarded by Niskaru."

Fayne pointed at herself. "Niskaru-killing expert. We'll be fine."

They made their way through the Niskaru-infested tunnels until they reached the Piercing Light. Unfortunately, merely approaching it summoned a couple of very powerful Niskaru for them to fight but it became a lot easier once Fayne was able to see the lines of Fate and rip theirs apart to kill them.

"We…we did it," Tilera said, coming up to her. She had a spear in her hand. Maybe that was what they were looking for? She hadn't really been all that clear. It was certainly glowing strangely and in her experience spears didn't normally do that. The Piercing Light was a rather stupid name, though.

"Yes we did," Fayne said, satisfied.

"I don't even know what to feel," Tilera confessed.

"Feel whatever you like but I'd advise something positive," Fayne suggested. "This is a great day."

Tilera laughed. "Yes, I'll try. But you have no idea!"

"Oh, please tell me you're not going to start with the insults," Fayne said, groaning.

Tilera stared at her. "Insults? Why would I insult you when you've just saved me?"

"I don't know. Ask the worst gnome ever in the worst town ever," Fayne said cryptically.

"What I meant was that I have more than just the sphere. I can break the siege at Mel Senshir, kill the Balor, and redeem myself," Tilera said elatedly.

"I…it's a nice spear and all but…aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself?" Fayne asked hesitantly.

"I've spent ten years seeking this spear and never truly thought I'd find it," Tilera revealed. "I 'wasn't fated to' or some such nonsense. We're going to kick so much ass with this."

"If you never thought you'd find it, why did you keep trying?" Fayne asked.

Tilera shrugged. "Well if I just gave up then I certainly wouldn't have found it!"

"That is true," Fayne conceded.

"So come with me to Rathir and then we'll go break the siege together."

Fayne's eyes widened and she drew back. "What? I don't recall signing up for this!"

"I can hardly do this without the one person immune from Fate, now can I?" Tilera asked rhetorically. "Please. We need you. I don't think we're fated to win this one. And if we lose everyone's going to die."

"But I don't want to," Fayne complained.

"Do you want the Tuatha to win?"

"I hate the fact that that's actually a legitimate question and if I don't they probably will," Fayne complained, sulking.

"There's no 'probably' about it," Tilera told her.

\----

Tilera evidently got a bit of a head start to Rathir because the moment Fayne arrived (and she did pretty much go straight there this time) she was waiting to greet her with some less-than-favorable news.

"We have a problem," Tilera said seriously. "Apparently Elund Carth doesn't believe in mythical weapons of prophecy and doesn't think a spear is going to be able to slay the Niskaru monsters at Mel Senshir and so won't send ships out to attack it for the millionth time and hope something new happens this time and not just the senseless death of everybody who goes. Can you believe him?"

"No, he sounds quite unreasonable," Fayne said dryly. "And I suppose the reason you're complaining to me about it instead of trying to change his mind is that you've passed the buck and decided it's my problem?"

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble," Tilera said gratefully.

"It would be incredibly troubling," Fayne corrected. "But I suppose I can't help it if I'm less willing to play chicken with the fate of the world than you are."

Before she took care of that, she stole the signet ring of House Wyvyrn-Gifre and the Chalice of Forced Vintage. In her defense, she had asked to purchase both of them before stealing them. She could sort of understand why a noble wouldn't want to part with the signet ring of his house (what would be the point of having a signet ring to prove yourself a noble if you just let anyone buy it from you?) or a cup that could supposedly turn any liquid into wine. But still, they had their chance.

Fayne's stealing skills left a lot to be desired so she basically just walked up to them, forcibly took the ring and then the chalice, and ran off. She was caught by the guards as she didn't want to make everyone hostile to her by killing her way out and so she bribed them to let her go. She didn't even have to give back what she'd taken and so she'd chalk that one up to a win.

Finally she went to the temple of Lyria to get the Cowl of the Maiden.

It was a little bit awkward when she walked in there to steal something and was immediately set upon by one of the temple people. Whatever they were called. Priestesses?

"Hello? What brings you here?" she asked. "Would you like to follow Lyria? I can give you three tasks to perform that will give you the Orison which will permanently decrease your mana cost by five percent."

"Hm. That does sound good but on the other hand, I don't want to sign up for anything that would take up too much of my time," Fayne said.

"Oh, this will hardly take up any time at all!" the priestess insisted. "First you have to carry the temple amphora to the three sacred springs all over the world."

"That sounds awful and I'm probably going to pass. But do go on. Let's see just how far you expect people to go for such a minor thing."

"Then you'd need to go down to the lower tunnels and convince the blasphemers who have nothing and are actually pretty clearly hated by Lyria to stop telling everybody that Lyria does, in fact, hate them and is punishing them and they're not chosen because if they were their lives wouldn't be so awful," the priestess continued. "It really makes us look bad. Especially since they're actually completely right. But maybe Lyria wouldn't hate them so much if they weren't so negative all the time."

"Is it just me or does that one priestess from Emaire suddenly seeming a lot less out there and a lot more like Lyria herself is just completely fucked up?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

"And finally you would be required to give up an epic gem or a shitton of gold or ninety percent of the experience that you have working towards the next level," the priestess concluded.

Fayne blinked in surprise. "That's a little meta, don't you think? But there's seriously no way in hell. Why would anyone agree to that?"

"Most people come by for their sacrifice after they just level up," the priestess confided. "It's not very in keeping with the spirit of sacrifice but it's technically allowed."

"I can see how a donation or a gem might be useful but, setting aside how it's even possible to rob someone of their experience like that-"

"Hey, don't look at me. The jails do it, too," the priestess interrupted.

"How does taking my experience help Lyria or the temple?"

"It doesn't," the priestess said. "It just shows you are committed."

"I am so not committed. Goodbye."

She snuck into a back room where she suspected the cowl was located and found an alfar woman instead.

"Hello," Fayne said. "I know that I really have no reason for thinking this and you're probably just some random Lyria person but I'm going to ask if you're Maire the Queen of Cups anyway."

"I'm not the Queen of Cups! Of course I…okay, fine. I totally am. How did you know?" Maire demanded.

"I literally have no idea. I just got the strange feeling. It's not like there's a sign over your head announcing your identity or anything."

Maire shook her head. "Well if you've heard of me at all then you're probably a Traveler and so you're probably here for the cowl but you can't have it. It's mine. I stole it first."

"Why are you fighting the Travelers for stolen things?" Fayne asked. "Aren't you one of them? You're one of the top people in charge, aren't you? The Queen of Cups."

Maire crossed her arms. "Well maybe I don't want to be a Traveler anymore. Maybe I'd rather strike out on my own."

"Irion mentioned that you were a noble. You could go back to that life without him," Fayne said knowingly. "And yet you keep stealing things. Why is that? If you're sick of the Travelers…"

"Maybe it's not the Travelers themselves I'm sick of," Maire admitted. "Maybe I'm burning with resentment over Irion taking them from me. But how can I stay with them and colead with my husband when I'm leaving him? I know he'll never leave. He didn't want me to leave. So I had to leave instead."

"I suppose I might as well ask why you left."

"He doesn't appreciate me," Maire explained. "I spend all day working to make Moon Camp something almost respectable and all he ever wants to do is have fun and jump around being a jester. And that wouldn't be so maddening if it weren't for the fact that he doesn't appreciate me."

"I just saw him the other day," Fayne said. Well, it had been awhile before that but chances were not much had changed. "And any lack of appreciation on his part is gone now. He's a mess without you. And stay or go, it's your choice, but I think that you've put the fear of God into him now. If you went back it would be different, at least at first. After that it's up to both of you to stop yourselves from falling into old patterns."

"I could…go back," Maire said consideringly. "It had never occurred to me and yet you're right. I could go back." She paused and something like wonderment crossed her face. "I will go back. Thank you. I don't know who you are or why you're offering impromptu marriage counseling but thank you."

"My name is Fayne," Fayne introduced. "I only met your husband briefly but I liked him and he's suffering and you look like you're not happy either. Besides, it's not like you're asking me to go on an epic quest to try and help you guys."

Maire smiled. "Well thank you, Fayne, then. Here, you might as well take the cowl back yourself. I'm sure the hierophant sent you."

"Yeah, as long as it ended up in Traveler hands you wouldn't think she'd care but…from what I've seen of her…she'd care. A lot. And never let me hear the end of it."

Maire left then but Fayne decided to go deal with that poisoned nobleman before heading back to Moon Camp. With poison, it really wasn't a good idea to let that alone for too long or the poisoned party might actually die.

Fayne was let right in and raced up to Mallion's bedside, hoping that the fact she got distracted doing stupid things that weren't all that urgent (and helping Tilera but, well, Mel Senshir had stood for ten years and probably could manage a few days more) didn't mean that Mallion was dead.

Fortunately, he was not though he seemed to be having some difficulty breathing. She wasn't really sure how she was supposed to administer the plant to him and so she kind of just put it in his mouth and hoped for the best. Fortunately, he didn't choke and within a minute was awake and standing up.

"Ow, my head hurts. I feel like I've been asleep for days! How long has it been?" he asked.

"Never mind about that!" Fayne said quickly. "You seem to have recovered very quickly. That's some miracle plant right there."

"I must have been poisoned by that suspicious bottle of wine I got right before I lost consciousness," Mallion deduced. "See, I knew I shouldn't have drunk something with a label that said 'drink me' that just showed up outside my door! But it was really good wine. Tasty, too, from what I recall even with the poison. What a shame I shan't be able to drink the rest of it. I see it fell under the bed and nobody noticed it in all the confusion."

Fayne stared at him. "How can you possibly see it fell under the bed from here? You didn't even move and I refuse to believe you can see under the bed from here."

Mallion crossed his arms. "Well just check and see if I'm right."

Fayne did check and the bottle of wine was under the bed. "Well then."

"See? Now please fetch my mother and try to take the wine off to see if it was poisoned and who poisoned me and whatnot. This whole thing is rather vexing."

" 'Vexing' might be putting it mildly. You did nearly die," Fayne said before heading off to see his mother.

"You ran in here so quickly!" Coriana said. "Did anything happen?"

"Yeah, it was a miracle. He woke up practically the moment he swallowed the plant," Fayne said.

"Then you deserve this gold and I'll give you more gold if you can solve the mystery of who tried to poison my son and why," Coriana said. "You said the poison came in a gift of wine? Take it to the apothecary then and see what they can figure out from it."

"Actually I didn't say that," Fayne said. "Your son did. How did you know that? Were you listening at the door? Then why did you pretend that you didn't know he was awake?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Coriana said innocently.

Shaking her head in annoyance, Fayne left for the apothecary.

"Hey," she said to the first person she saw once she had entered, "this has poison in it. Can you tell me what kind?"

The woman started. "Now that's not a question you want to hear!" She took the bottle and examined it. "Yep, I can tell exactly what kind of poison this is."

"Just by staring at it?" Fayne asked blankly.

"And also by smelling it," the woman said. "I can understand how you wouldn't notice that I was doing that, though, since I didn't insist on sticking my nose in the wine in case that had any negative effects on me. I'm very good at my job, you know. That's presumably why you came to me. Now, I sold a vial of this very poison to the servant of old Elnar Abergast."

"Selling poison? That doesn't sound like a great move."

The woman shrugged. "Hey, I run an apothecary and it's all perfectly legal and this sort of thing just isn't my problem. I'll go send an antidote to House Anwon at once and you go alert the city watch."

Fayne thought about telling her that Mallion was already cured but decided against it. Maybe that plant hadn't completely cured him, after all. "I don't trust the city watch. The last guy in charge was a slaver murdering and framing people to cover up his own crimes."

"Well that was the last guy," the woman said reasonably.

"And why should I even bother telling them? Judging by the fact you somehow knew I was sent by House Anwon, they probably already know and have the servant in custody," Fayne said.

"I wouldn't risk it," the woman said.

Fayne decided to risk it, however, and just went straight to the Abergast house.

She just sort of barged right in because, under the circumstances, knocking and waiting to be invited in would seem a bit coy. She found a dead body in the corner of the room and hurried over to it.

"That was my servant," a man greeted her.

"So you're Eldas Abergast then?" Fayne asked.

The man twitched. "Elnar Abergast, actually. I killed him because he asked me, too."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Oh, yes, a noble angel of mercy. Quite. Was it to escape persecution for his poisoning or you getting rid of an incriminating accomplice?"

"Neither, if you can believe that," Abergast said.

"I can't."

"He was a disciple of Belen, same as I was," Abergast said. "He wanted me to kill him. And I wanted to kill Coriana's whole family because she broke my heart decades ago."

"Oh, don't tell me this is what this was!" Fayne protested.

Abergast stopped, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Once upon a time you fell in love but she rejected you. It doesn't matter why she did it, only that she did and she was perfectly within her rights to do so. You freaked out and moped about it and eventually fell in with a death cult and made it your mission to make her life a living hell. Some love. How very cliché and how utterly pathetic," Fayne said disgustedly.

"Belen's Testament isn't pathetic!" he snapped angrily.

"Agree to disagree on that but I wasn't talking about them. I was talking about you."

"I…you know what? I don't have to listen to this," Abergast said furiously. He raised his staff and Fayne braced herself but she might as well not have bothered as he pointed it at himself and then fell to the floor in a crumpled heap.

"Death cultists," Fayne said, shaking her head. She only barely managed to resist the temptation to kick his body on her way out.

Right as she stepped outside, two members of the city watch ran up to her.

"So what's all this about a poisoning accusation?" one asked.

"How did I know?" Fayne asked rhetorically. "Look, you can sort the mess of the two corpses inside out on your own. It appears to be a murder suicide and I had nothing to do with it aside from insulting the guy who later committed suicide."

"Do you feel your insults drove him to suicide?" the same guard asked.

Fayne considered the question. "It's hard to say. That might be why he killed himself just then but he was guilty of poisoning Mallion Anwon and didn't want to go to jail. Besides, he was a death cultists."

The other guard spit on the ground. "Death cultists."

"I know!" Fayne exclaimed, feeling rather more charitable towards the pair now.

She quickly took her leave of them and went back to Coriana.

"I, uh, I have a confession to make," Coriana said after handing over the gold. She was wringing her hands. "I almost married Elnar when I was younger but my parents didn't approve and I just…I didn't. I knew that he deserved better than to be rejected like that but I never dreamed he'd be driven to a death cult!"

"Stop it," Fayne said firmly.

"Stop what?" Coriana asked.

"Stop blaming yourself," Fayne said firmly. "This isn't your fault. You didn't 'drive' him to do anything. Maybe he deserved to be treated better by you once upon a time a long time ago but those days are long gone. He's no longer the victim here. You are. He tried to kill your son. And the fact that you've lost the rest of your family…well, who can really say that wasn't his doing as well? Don't blame the victim. Don't blame yourself. If this is what he's like after having been rejected, is he really who you would have wanted to marry and father your children?"

Coriana let the words wash over her for a moment before abruptly straightening. "No. No it is most certainly not."


End file.
